A lecture on eclecticism in operations for cataract : delivered at St. Mary's Hospital / by Anderson Critchett.

  • Critchett, George Anderson, 1845-1925.
Date:
1883
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on eclecticism in operations for cataract : delivered at St. Mary's Hospital / by Anderson Critchett. 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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    lcssness to pass my knife through his cornea ; and, in the operation which I performed upon him some weeks since, I limited my incision strictly to the sclerotic. His recovery has been unusually slow, but I am glad to say the final result has been most successful. I point out to you the corneal operation as one to to be avoided also in patients of very advanced age or enfeebled constitution, especially when analysis of the urine has revealed degenerative renal changes. Many of you will doubtless remember that the only two instances of suppuration of the cornea after cataract-extraction which occurred in this hospital last year, were in the cases of two paupers who were admitted from the workhouse. Should similar cases come under my care in the future, I should in the first instance draw somewhat largely upon the hospi- tal funds in preparing the patients for the operation by a liberal administration of nourishing diet; and, in the second place, I should leave their corneal tissue uninvaded. In cases where a cataract is not yet ma- tured, or where a sufficient store of time and patience can be placed at your disposal, I believe that you may add a very appreciable percentage to operative suc- cess by performing a preliminary iridectomy at least four months before the removal of the cataract. I certainly advise that this course should.be adopted in the second eye, where failure, whether from suppura- tion or from other causes, has resulted in the first. We must not forget that individuals are to be met with who pass safely through the shoals and quick- sands of cataract-extraction, and are subsequently wrecked, when within sight of port, by a compara- tively simple and usually harmless discission of the capsule. I have in my mind an instance of this in the person of one of my own patients, who made a