Combined Cataract & Glaucoma Surgery

Cataract and glaucoma are common eye conditions which become increasingly common with advanced years. Frequently, Dr. Colvard has patients in whom both these conditions are present simultaneously. The treatment of cataract and glaucoma has been evolving over the years and recent studies have shown that when surgery is indicated for cataract and glaucoma, better results can be achieved if the surgeries for cataract and glaucoma are performed simultaneously.

Previously, some surgeons have advocated operating on the glaucoma first and the cataract subsequently, or vice versa, but it has now been clearly established that the best results are achieved with simultaneous cataract and glaucoma operations.

Cataract is, of course, a loss of clarity of the focusing lens inside the eye; whereas glaucoma is a condition in which elevated pressure inside the eye can damage the optic nerve and rob a patient of sight. Damage to the optic nerve initially affects the peripheral vision and is ordinarily difficult for anyone, other than one's ophthalmologist or eye care professional, to detect. The treatment of glaucoma, in all forms, aims to lower the pressure or tension within the eye. Many patients are satisfactorily treated merely by the use of drops or medicines which will lower the pressure. In other patients, a simple laser procedure is performed to achieve this pressure lower effect. In other patients glaucoma surgery, called trabeculectomy, is indicated but this decision can only be made by one's eye ophthalmologist.