Ulceration of the cornea from the diplobacillus of Morax-Axenfeld / Hanford McKee.

  • McKee, Samuel Hanford, 1875-1943.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ulceration of the cornea from the diplobacillus of Morax-Axenfeld / Hanford McKee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    V \' •^r-S+' B ULCEEATION OF PROM THE DIPLO- BACILLUS OF MORAX-AXENFELD. Hanford McKee^ B.A., M.D, Assistant Surgeon to the Eye and Ear Department of the Montreal General Hospital. MONTREAL^ CANADA. Diseases of the cornea form one of the most important chapters in ophthalmology, and ulcerations of the cornea one of the most important parts of diseases of the cornea. Infection of corneal tissue may be either exogenous or endogenous, but probably in all ulcerative processes pathogenic organisms play an important role. The organisms which have been most responsible for destructive processes in the cornea are the gonococcus, pneumococcus, strepto- coccus, ?ur Xedden’s bacillus^ bacilus pyocyaneus, bacillus ozena. The destructive ability of these organisms when once allowed access to an abraded cornea is only too well known. Of late a new factor in ulcerative processes has appeared. One of the best known diseases of the conjunctival sac to-day is diplo- bacillary conjunctivitis. It is now known that a very important complication of this disease may be ulceration of the cornea. From the first writings on diplobacillary conjunctivitis it has been admitted that a complication very liable to occur was ulcera- tion of the cornea; the ulceration, however, was always of the super- ficial type, generally at the corneo-sclerotic margin and the propor- tion of cases was small. That the diplobacillus might be responsible for ulcers of the cornea as severe in type as the ulcus serpens from pneumococcus infection has not until of late been recognized. In 1897 zur Nedden described 23 cases of ulceration of the cornea complicating diplobacillary conjunctivitis. In the same year Uhthoff and Axenfeld described a case, and Peters saw five cases