Chronic suppurative dacryocystitis and its radical treatment : read before the British Medical Association, Toronto, Canada, Thursday, August 23rd, 1906 / by Fred T. Tooke.

  • Tooke, Fred T.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Chronic suppurative dacryocystitis and its radical treatment : read before the British Medical Association, Toronto, Canada, Thursday, August 23rd, 1906 / by Fred T. Tooke. 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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    CHRONIC SUPPURATIVE DACRYOCYSTITIS AND ITS RADICAL TREATMENT. It is an acknowledged fact that, with the lachrymal sac in its normal condition, the secretion of tears and their irri- gation through the lachrymal channels is a physiological necessity. In a cavity lined with a secreting membrane as the tear sac, where pathogenic bacteria and epithelial debris are most liable to collect, the flow of tears is a most important factor in cleansing the cavity by the simple process of irrigation. The same argument does not hold in the case of the palpebral conjunctiva when once the sac has been excised; the lids and globe being in constant motion, bacteria are prevented from collecting at one point, as they do in the ease of a strictured sac, but are distributed or expelled over the palpebral margins by the blinking action of the lids. These bacteria, found in the palpebral mucosa, assume a veiy much more benign character than the same species found in a stagnant.tear sac either before it has been excised or before its lumen has been opened.1 Eegarding the exact function of tears, the following information has beel^obtained : That in addition to their acting as a simple irrigating factor, they have some inherent power inhibiting bacterial growth. Exactly what this potency is due to has not as yet been satisfactorily explained. Two conclusions, however, have been arrived at. tears acting as a simple irrigating factor, the secretion being ultimately drained away through the lachrymal sac into the nose. 2. That there is something of a bactericidal nature in the composition of tears ; cultures of various organisms, more particularly of the Staphylococcus albus, produce fewer colonies in media containing tears than in media not containing them, or even than in media containing a solution of sodium chloride supposed to correspond to the lachrymal secretion. The modern practice in ophthalmic surgery of discarding all heavy dressings and bandages which inhibit the action Introduction.