A treatise on "unripe" cataract / by William A. M'Keown.

  • M'Keown, William A.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on "unripe" cataract / by William A. M'Keown. 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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    in which strict antiseptic precautions had been observed, bacteria were found in 30, and in 19 of this number staphylococcus albus was present, in 5 staphylococcus aureus, and in 3 streptococcus. Professor Gayet, of Lyons, made elaborate bacterio- logical investigation relating to the microbes of the conjunctiva, and states as a result that antiseptic or aseptic measures exercise only a very slight influence on the presence of germs in the conjunctival cut de sac, and that whatever care may be taken one is never certain of getting rid of them in the operative field, and further, that these germs are not all pathogenic, since the number of cases of suppuration in his practice was per cent., whilst the fertility of the operative field was 75 per cent.# Preparation of the Patient.—When an operation has been decided on, and there is no evidence of any local affection to contra-indicate it, the surgeon should proceed to do it as soon as possible. It is a good rule to have the patient under the eye of a skilled nurse from the previous evening to ascertain whether there are any peculiarities or idiosyncrasies of which he should be aware. In this way information may be obtained which would not be got by direct enquiry. As a rule, the only matter to be attended to is the administration of a purgative when required the night before operation. If the patient suffer from any affection of the conjunctiva, or of the margins of the lids, or of the lacrymal passages, or even nasal passages likely to lead to an inoculation of the eye by pyogenic organisms, the operation should be postponed till such affection has been cured, or as far as possible mitigated. If there be no such evidence of a local affection nothing further is required * Archives aophthalmologic, 1887.