Is redness normal after trabeculectomy?

What's normal

The white of the eye is cut, stitched, and often treated with an antiscarring medicine during trabeculectomy, so redness around the surgery site is expected. It typically fades gradually over several weeks. The bleb area itself often looks different from the rest of the eye long term, sometimes paler and slightly raised.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology says medicines are prescribed for several weeks after the procedure to help prevent infection, discomfort, and scarring, and those steroid drops are part of what brings the redness down.

Usually fades over 4 to 8 weeks. New redness at any point after that, especially with pain or discharge, is urgent.

When it stops being normal

The American Academy of Ophthalmology says patients with a red, painful eye should contact their doctor immediately. This is a lifelong rule after trabeculectomy, not just a first month rule.

EyeWiki describes bleb associated infection presenting suddenly with pain, light sensitivity, discharge, conjunctival redness, and a white on red appearance of the bleb, and classifies these infections as early onset within one month of surgery or late onset after one month. A reported bleb associated endophthalmitis incidence of 0.2 to 3.8 percent is small, but the outcome is bad if it is treated late, so redness plus pain or discharge is a same day emergency at any point in your life.