cataract surgery with open angle glaucoma

Is this a common is cataract surgery? And how successful is the outcome of cataract surgery when the patient has open angle glaucoma?  Is there many risks? How happy are the patients with their surgery?  A patient told me that she regrets having cataract surgery because she became blind because of it.  Does the risk of blindness outweight the benefits, or are there alternatives to having surgery?


This discussion is related to Pre-Surgery concerns about Cataract Removal.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

For most people with open angle glaucoma (POAG) surgery is no different than if they did not have POAG.  If glaucoma is severe (on 3 or 4 drops) then it is often coupled with a glaucoma filtering procedure and that makes it the more complicated. Often Xalatan, lumigan and travatan-Z are discontineed for a couple of months due to increaing the risk of swelling of the macula.

Your surgeon will need to expain your options and the risks. The risks will include infection, bleeding, need for more surgery, making glaucoma worse (but often makes glaucoma better), retinal detachment, corneal decompensation and a small risk of blindness


Only you can determine if your vision is bad enough to assume these risks. Relatively speaking the risks are small comprared to other major surgery.

JCH MD