Eyeball tension : its effects on the sight and its treatment / by W. Spencer Watson.

  • Watson, W. Spencer (William Spencer), 1836-1906.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eyeball tension : its effects on the sight and its treatment / by W. Spencer Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    28/90 (page 18)
    it seems very probable that there is some foundation for the objection so far as regards acute glaucoma. There is no foundation for it as regards the chronic form of the disease. It is therefore well to warn a patient affected with acute glaucoma of one eye, that the second eye may be shortly affected in the same way as the first, and that a second operation may be required for its treatment sooner or later. It has also been objected that iridectomy has caused cataract. The operation performed with care and skill is not fairly to be charged with this result. In cases in which the anterior chamber is very shallow the risk of wounding the capsule of the lens is very great, but is very much diminished by making the sclerotic incision by means of a narrow cataract knife as recommended and practised by Mr. Bowman. Cystoid cicatrices following the operation are alluded to by most authors as troublesome. If large, they are certainly apt to cause irritation, but I have never seen any serious inconvenience from them in my own practice. A compressing bandage applied soon after the operation will often prevent the further develop- ment of a threatening protrusion, but if that does not succeed, a portion of the prominence may be snipped off by means of a curved pair of iris scissors, or punc- tured with a cataract needle, and a compressing bandage then applied. A small but slightly promi- nent cystoid cicatrix should not be meddled with.