Acute angle closure glaucoma is a medical emergency which can result in blindness. As it is very painful patients are usually referred rapidly to an ophthalmologist. If it occurs following general anaesthesia however, the diagnosis may not be considered and symptoms such as pain and vomiting wrongly attributed. Delayed diagnosis puts the patient at risk both from the ocular complications of acute angle closure glaucoma, and also from inappropriate investigation and intervention. We report an illustrative case where bilateral acute angle closure glaucoma followed a general anaesthetic. The correct diagnosis was delayed for 11 days
