2139 / 5000 Resultados de traducción Cataract and glaucoma

22 December 2020

Cataract and glaucoma are eye conditions that can occur simultaneously in the same patient.

Cataract is the opacification of the natural lens of the eye (called the crystalline lens) and glaucoma is a dangerous and degenerative disease of the nerve of the eye that can lead to blindness without solution.

When a patient with glaucoma develops a cataract, they notice that their vision becomes blurred and progressively reduced, however, the diminished vision caused by the cataract can recover after surgery.

The advantages that cataract surgery offers in a patient with glaucoma are:

- The percentage of vision that has been lost due to the cataract is recovered;

- it reduces intraocular pressure, because the space that is left free when the cataract is extracted allows the fluid from the eye to escape more easily;

- Studies to assess the progression of glaucoma are more reliable after removing the cataract, because the light penetrates the eye better;

- can be performed simultaneously with glaucoma surgery, without the need for two separate procedures.

The surgery will help restore the vision that the cataract has removed, however, the vision that has been lost due to glaucoma cannot be recovered.

It is also possible that the cataract can produce high pressure in the eye and, if it is not operated in time, develop secondary glaucoma due to:

- very mature cataracts, which liquefy and release their components within the eye, producing persistent inflammation and high pressure in the eye;

- cataracts secondary to trauma;

cataracts so thick that they close the drainage system of the eye.

When the glaucoma is very advanced or terminal, and the condition of the nerve is very delicate, it is likely that the patient can no longer undergo cataract surgery due to the risk it represents, which is why the importance of a timely and periodic check-up with the ophthalmologist . The glaucoma specialist will assess the risks and benefits of surgery and offer it to you, as long as the benefits far outweigh the probable risks.

Dr. Katherine Rivera
General Ophthalmology
Specialty in Glaucoma and Anterior Segment.