Operations for cataract / by R. H. Elliot.

  • Robert Elliot
Date:
[1906]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Operations for cataract / by R. H. 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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    tion of the lens by the capsule-laceration method ? It wovild be interesting to learn whether in these cases there was any question of the capsule having been caught in the section, or of the iris having been impacted therein. Also, was there any inflammation of the eye at the time of convalescence from the operation? I have not infrequently seen eyes operated on for cataract go wrong within the next two or three years, but there has always been evidence of an imperfect operation, vitreous escape, impacted capsule and iris, or post-operative iritis. It has long been recognised that the inclusion of fragments of capsule in the margins of the wound is a prolific source of deep-seated inflam- mations during the after-course of a cataract operation. If the whole capsule is removed, it is obvious that this danger is eliminated. Whether a new risk, in the shape of impacted vitreous is placed in its stead, must be a matter of experience. If Major Smith will reconsider his position, and state a claim that by the intra-capsular method he removes (1) the dangers of IMPACTED capsule, and (2) the burden thrown on an eye already trembling in the balance by the strain of absorbing left cortex, it will then be possible to a^ree with him. The main question will still remain, whether what he gains on the one hand he does not lose on the other. To this I shall revert later. That the dangers of iritis are not great when the old method is carefully performed with the aid of irrigation, I have already shown, inasmuch as 200 cases only yielded me 2 5 per cent of this complication. Of these five cases two obtained good vision and only three can be counted as partial successes.
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