Cataract and glaucoma surgery

Abstract

Cataract and glaucoma are leading causes of worldwide blindness and are among the most common ocular conditions associated with the aging process. Because the worldwide population is aging, the prevalence of cataract and glaucoma are increasing, and these conditions will require greater allocations of resources to achieve favorable outcomes and positive influences on quality-of-life measures. Cataract surgery and intraocular lens (IOL) implantation has become the most successful rehabilitative microsurgical procedure in modern medicine. Our success with the management of glaucoma, either medically or surgically, has not achieved similar success. Nonetheless, we are increasingly forced to deal with situations in which patients have both cataract and glaucoma; and we frequently contend with our patients' expectations of a functional result similar to that achieved by modern cataract surgery. The perplexing question is how to manage these coexisting conditions to promote the best possible outcome. © 2010 Springer-Verlag New York.