Blindness from sympathetic ophthalmitis : restoration of vision by Critchett's operation / by G. E. de Schweinitz.

  • De Schweinitz, G. E. (George Edmund), 1858-1938.
Date:
[1900]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Blindness from sympathetic ophthalmitis : restoration of vision by Critchett's operation / by G. E. de Schweinitz. 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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    BLINDNESS FROM SYMPATHETIC OPHTHALMITIS — RESTORATION OF VISION BY CRITCHETT'S OPERATION* BY G. E. DE SCHWEINITZ, M.D., PHILADELPHIA. Doubtless we all agree with the late Mr. George Critchett's advice not 0 attempt operative interference during the progress of sympathetic iphthalmitis. As he says : It is only when the disease has run its curse, and finished its work of destruction, so that the eye has not only lecome perfectly quiet, losing all vascularity and sensitiveness to light, lUt when this condition or quiescence has existed for some time, that t may become expedient to commence operative measures.f Iridectomy, iridotomy and various forms of extraction having proved nsatisfactory or disappointing, Mr. Critchett proposed and practiced the Dllowing operation : The patient is placed under the influence of an anes- tietic, a speculum is introduced, the globe is fixed, and a fine cutting eedle is introduced through the cornea, its point being directed to le center of the capsule. This structure is penetrated by making a apid rotary movement, on the principle of a gimlet. A second needle 1 introduced from the opposite side and the points separated from each ther, the result being a rent in the center of the capsule and the escape f the soft lens matter. The operation must be repeated at proper inter- als until a clear pupil has been obtained. The following is a case in point: Benjamin C, aged 53, born in Philadelphia, married, an engraver and rinter by trade, was admitted to the ophthalmic wards of the Philadel- hia Hospital on August 17, 1898. History.—His family and personal history in detail is unimportant ; e has enjoyed good health; he has spreed occasionally, but is not steady drinker; he smokes and chews tobacco excessively; he is not .'philitic. In March, 1898 (he does not remember the exact date), his left eye as injured by a blow from a walking stick. He remained one night in le Polyclinic Hospital, and then returned to his work, occasionally visit- *Read before the Ophthalmic Section of the College of Physicians. Philadelphia, Jan. 16. 1900. ^Royai Lond. Oph. Hosp. Reports, Vol. X. Part 2, 1881, p. 144.