Report of one hundred and eighteen cataract extractions : with remarks / David Webster.

  • Webster, David, 1842-1923.
Date:
[1895]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of one hundred and eighteen cataract extractions : with remarks / David Webster. 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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    REPORT OF ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN CATA- RACT EXTRACTIONS; WITH REMARKS. DAVID WEBSTER, M.D., NEW YORK. IPRESENT herewith tabulated statistics of one hundred and eighteen cataract extractions, of which one hundred and thirteen were simple and the remaining five combined with iridectomy. These cases are consecutive, and include all un- complicated senile cataracts operated upon by me in hospitals and in private practice since the publication of my last series of cataract extractions in the Transactions of the American Ophthalmological Society, vol. vi., part i. I greatly prefer the simple extraction in all ordinary cases of senile cataract. In my experience it is a less difficult operation to perform than the combined. The traumatism involved in the bruising of the iris during the extrusion of the lens seems to be less than that necessarily inflicted in excision of a por- tion of the iris. Moreover, the bleeding from the severed blood-vessels of the iris very frequently floods the pupil, ob- scures the lens, and renders the remaining steps of the opera- tion more difficult. We are unable to see the anterior capsule while incising or lacerating it with the cystitome, and after we have removed the lens, we are left in doubt as to whether we have left any considerable amount of cortical matter behind. We are also absolutely sure that the eye thus operated upon cannot recover with that ideal result—a central, circular, movable pupil. Nevertheless, there are certain conditions that seem to de- mand the combined operation as the one less likely to result in failure. I prefer and follow the combined method : i. In cases in which there is an evident predisposition to glaucoma, as when the fellow eye has already become blind with that disease. Reprinted from Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital Reports, Jan., 1895