Reduced Ocular Tension After Cataract Surgery

Ocular tension is commonly reduced below normal for some time after cataract extraction. If one interested in postoperative hypotony peruses the literature on the subject, he is left with a number of unanswered questions. Is the hypotony following lens extraction of importance? How regularly does it occur? To what is it due? Does it cause complications? If the ophthalmic surgeon could have available to him a graph picturing the predicted intraocular tensions following cataract surgery, similar to that published by Kronfeld20in his study following withdrawal of aqueous humor, he might feel that he could assess the postoperative course of his cataract patients more effectively. The term hypotony is used by some writers to indicate a tension of 10 or below. In this article, the term hypotony will be used to indicate any subnormal tension. LITERATURE A number of studies have been made on hypotony following operation for glaucoma.