Ophthalmia neonatorum : its etiology and prevention / by Sydney Stephenson.

  • Stephenson, Sydney, 1862-1923.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ophthalmia neonatorum : its etiology and prevention / by Sydney Stephenson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    11/20 (page 11)
    Monatsbl. f. Augen./ 1887, p. 385) and Bellouard ('These de Paris,' 1892) have each reported instances of this kind. Pariohew ('Annales d'Oculistique/t. cix, 1893, p. 313) has related a case in point, where an ill-nourished baby, as soon as it was born, was found to be suffering from ophthalmia, associated with opacity of the cornea. Gono- cocci were demonstrated in secretion from the eyes. The membranes, according to Parichew, had ruptured three days before the beginning of the labour, which lasted about 124 hours and was normal in everyway. The following is a brief account of one of my own cases :—Thos. W—, aged three weeks, was seen on February 23rd, 1898, suffering from bilateral ophthalmia, with gonococci. The baby was born at term after a labour lasting 26£ hours, and the waters burst certainly twenty hours before the completion of the labour. The right eye was observed to be inflamed as soon as the child came into the world, and the left eye became infected on the tenth clay. I have seen a few similar cases. It is, however, probable that there is another means whereby the eye becomes infected in utero—namely, by the passage of gonococci through the intact membranes. The first authentic case of this kind known to me was reported in 1858 by Bivaud-Landrau, of Lyons, and since then cases have been published by Chancon, Strzeminski, andArmaignac. Armaignac's case ('Annales d'Oculistique/ October, 1902) was so well reported as to deserve a word of passing description. An ill-developed infant, weighing only 1786 grammes, was born at the eighth month, after a labour lasting |i hours. The membranes Avere ruptured by the midwife \ hour before the expulsion of the foetus. At birth the eyelids were found to be red and swollen, and on separating them pus escaped from the eyes. A purulent vulvitis was also present. The mother had borne one child 1\ years before, and that child had remained free from ophthalmia. During her second pregnancy, however, the mother had suffered from metritis. One must therefore admit that so-called con-