Many elderly patients have an acute glaucoma attack with eye swelling, eye pain, vision loss, headache with nausea and vomiting. After a visit to the hospital to confirm the diagnosis of glaucoma attack and treatment with medication, most of them need surgery. After careful pre-operative preparation, the time for surgery was almost here! The doctor explained the condition and needed to sign a preoperative explanation and notification form. Although the patient did not study medicine, but listened to how it is absolutely wrong, the doctor has been talking to me about how to operate the crystal, the risks of surgery, it seems to have nothing to do with glaucoma ah! Is it a mistake? Even if I have cataracts in my eyes, it’s not the right time for surgery, right? What is the relationship between glaucoma and cataract? Glaucoma is a very distinctive disease in ophthalmology: the medication is special and the surgery is special, so it is definitely for glaucoma, which seems to be different from cataract. However, the truth is: the progression of cataract is not unrelated to the onset of glaucoma in elderly patients! Cataracts are divided into several stages, one of which is the cataract expansion phase, in which the crystalline cortex continuously absorbs water and expands, causing the crystal to become thicker and more convex, protruding forward and lifting up the iris tissue covering its surface, which in turn narrows or even closes the outflow channels around the iris responsible for intraocular aqueous circulation. In this case, the effect of external drainage surgery for glaucoma alone is not definitive and does not address the cause of the disease. The exact solution is to do cataract surgery in advance to remove the immature cataract and completely solve the pressure of the crystal on the atrial water outflow channel, so that it can be reopened and the atrial water circulation will be smooth, and the IOP will be naturally lowered. After the natural lens is removed, an artificial lens is installed, and the artificial lens is very thin and has a reduced diameter, so it is impossible to squeeze the peripheral atrial flow channels after the artificial lens is placed, thus avoiding the possibility of glaucoma attacks. Don’t worry, the doctor didn’t make a mistake~ Since cataracts are done sooner or later, it is a good choice to do it in advance and solve the hidden problem of glaucoma, killing two birds with one stone! Each doctor manages many patients, and the time allocated to each patient is not a lot, so this situation is difficult to explain in a very short time to patients with zero knowledge of ophthalmology to understand the problems that internists study for three years to understand, so it is easy to understand how patients feel confused and worried that they are being opened and closed. There are many kinds of glaucoma, and it is only glaucoma attacks due to the age-related cataract expansion phase that are suitable for cataract surgery methods, which is only a suitable procedure for a very small percentage of patients with glaucoma. Patients with glaucoma have to cooperate carefully with the doctor’s treatment and undergo a detailed examination in order to determine their best treatment plan and open the door to a brighter future to avoid the end of blindness.