PURPOSE; Eyes with intractable glaucoma or those that are blind and painful because of longstanding glaucoma often pose challenging therapeutic problems. In this study, we investigated the effect of trabeculectomy in the treatment of absolute glaucoma with painful eye. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty three eyes of 53 patients with blind eyes who had undergone trabeculectomy because of absolute glaucoma were reviewed, retrospectively. RESULTS: The diagnoses of 53 patients were neovascular glaucoma in 21 eyes, primary open angle glaucoma in 23 eyes, congenital glaucoma in two eyes, aphakic glaucoma in three eyes, secondary open angle glaucoma in two eyes and angle closure glaucoma in two eyes. Of these patients, 29 were female, 24 were male and the mean age was 65.22 ± 2.66 years. The surgical method was trabeculectomy in 53 eyes (30 eyes with mitomycin-C). The mean preoperative intraocular pressure(IOP) was 46.09 ± 2.52 mmHg, and the mean postoperative IOP was 19.65 ± 2.14 mmHg. The difference between preoperative and postoperative IOP was statistically significant (p<0.001). The mean postoperative follow-up period was 15.35 ± 4.76 months. When the results of trabeculectomy with mitomycin-C are compared with those without mitomycin-C, a significant difference was found in terms of the decrease in preoperative and postoperative IOP (p<0.01). In the postoperative period, it was detected that the pain completely disappeared and the findings of the irritation improved in the overall 90.56% of the cases. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that trabeculectomy with mitomycin-C affords good pain relief with good pressure control in absolute glaucoma.