Surgery to destroy the ciliary body is an effective means to reduce the intraocular pressure in glaucoma.Ultrasound cycloplasty (UCP) is a computer-aided automatic operation that produces high-intensity focused ultrasound to induce ciliary body coagulation through miniaturized transducers.UCP reduces intraocular pressure mainly by destroying ciliary process epithelial cells and increasing uveoscleral outflow.With a wide range of indications, UCP is mainly used for refractory glaucoma, including patients with or without history of anti-glaucoma surgery.It can reduce intraocular pressure safely and efficiently with good outcome, and can be used as a reproducible effective alternative to non-invasive glaucoma surgery.The effect of UCP is better in patients with angle-closure glaucoma, high intraocular pressure before operation, application of second-generation probe and long exposure time.In order to provide reference for clinical treatment and research, the indications, surgical procedures, precautions, mechanism of action, effectiveness, safety, factors affecting therapeutic effect and the deficiencies of researches about UCP in the treatment of glaucoma were reviewed in this article.