Sclero-corneal trephining in the operative treatment of glaucoma / by Robert Henry Elliot.

  • Elliot, Robert Henry, 1864-1936.
Date:
[1913?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sclero-corneal trephining in the operative treatment of glaucoma / by Robert Henry Elliot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    In the next instance twenty-five patients suffering from un- complicated cataract were taken. Their average age was fifty- four, their average intra-ocular tension 16 mm. Hg., and their average systemic arterial tension was 143 mm. Hg. Finally a series of twenty-five glaucoma patients was taken. Their average age was forty-eight, their average intra-ocular tension 58 mm. Hg., and their average systemic arterial tension 142 mm. Hg. The investigation is still in progress, but the obvious lesson would appear to be that the glaucoma patients had acquired at the age of forty-eight a systemic arterial tension, which those suffering from cataract did not reach till they were six years older. The inference would appear to be that systemic arterial tension may be a very distinct factor in the aetiology of glaucoma. The determination of the average tension in healthy people at the ages of forty-eight and fifty- four respectively is being carried out. There is a small point which does not actually concern the diagnosis of glaucoma, but which may yet be conveniently dealt with here. It has to do with the determination of the presence of filtration after a sclerectomy. If a probe be taken and gently pressed on the conjunctiva in the neighbourhood of a trephine or other sclerectomy wound, there will be a very definite pitting of the conjunctiva if filtration is taking place beneath that membrane. This method is on all fours with that of pressing the finger on a patient's skin over a bone, such as the tibia, in seeking to discover the presence of the cedema due to cardiac insufficiency. The two procedures are equally simple and equally precise. If necessary, cocaine may be instilled beforehand, but we find as a rule that it is not required.