Glaucoma is a condition that causes damage to your eye's optic nerve and gets worse over time. It's often associated with a buildup of pressure inside the eye. Glaucoma tends to be inherited and may not show up until later in life.
Apakic glaucoma is a secondary glaucoma that is associated with the removal lens during congenital cataract surgery. Aphakic glaucoma can develop from weeks to years after the surgery. The incidence rate is up to 50% of patients in some studies. The mechanism is still debated.
Here are a couple of papers:
Chak M , RahiJS; British Congenital Cataract Interest Group. Incidence of and factors associated with glaucoma after surgery for congenital cataract: findings from the British Congenital Cataract Study.Ophthalmology.2008;115(6):1013–1018.
Russell-Eggitt, Isabelle, and Parisa Zamiri. "Review of aphakic glaucoma after surgery for congenital cataract." Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery 23 (1997): 664-668.
Chen, Teresa C., David S. Walton, and Lini S. Bhatia. "Aphakic glaucoma after congenital cataract surgery." Archives of ophthalmology 122.12 (2004): 1819-1825.
Dr Bassi has explained it comprehensively. I may add some words:
The term aphakic wrongly implies that glaucoma appears only in those congenital cataract patients who have been operated with no intraocular lens implantation. It is also seen in congenital cataract patients who have been implanted an intraocular lens after cataract operation (pseudophakic).
Aphakic glaucoma is a secondary glaucoma which is caused by goniosynechiae due to a cataract surgery without intraocular lens implantation.
I think of aphakic glaucoma as a secondary glaucoma in an eye that had its lens extracted through surgery. A combination of mechanisms are responsible for the rise in IOP. The final common pathway is the failure of aqueous drainage. This results in optic nerve head changes/damage and resultant visual filed loss.
The potential mechanisms include posterior aqueous diversion, pupil block by vitreous and anterior synechia formation.
It does occur even in adult aphakic eyes and not just restricted to congenital cataract surgery-related complications. With a decline in ICCE however, it is now uncommon in adult eyes.
Aphakic or pseudophakic glaucoma are clinically high IOL following cataract removal surgery it can be due to inflammation and adhesions or misdirection of aqueous humor drainage that also called malignant glaucoma
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