Peritomy or peridectomy.

  • Fox, Lawrance Webster, 1853-1931.
Date:
[1903]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Peritomy or peridectomy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Reprinted from the Annals of Ophthalmology, October, 1903. PERITOMY OR PERIDECTOMY.* By L. Webster Fox, A. M„M.D. PHILADELPHIA, PA. -'-0 iLcJ-- - PROFESSOR OF OPHTHALMOLOGY MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL COLLEGE PHILADELPHIA, PA. As is well known, the cornea during health is entirely devoid of bloodvessels but in the course of intense irrita- tion and inflammation, its surface becomes vascularized to an extent greatly detrimental to its transparency. In such cases, the bloodvessels are derived from the con- junctiva and persist indefinitely in destroying the useful- ness of the cornea of the affected eye unless prompt measures are taken to remove the cause and to obliterate the origin of the vessels. Any treatment that fails to combine these measures is, at best, but partially effective. In all cases in which the surface of the cornea is abraded or ulcerated and even when diffusely clouded, it is the duty of the attending surgeon to examine the cornea with a high power lens to determine the presence or absence of radiating vessels at the margin. The causes of this vas- cularization are familiar to all; the condition can arise only from irritation to the surface epithelium or corneal inflammation. The most aggravated cases are seen in •connection with trachoma, but it also attends corneal ulcer- ation and inflammation from other causes. Pannus is the name applied to marked cases but frequently vessels form upon the cornea to which the term pannus would be inappropriate. The measures to be adopted in these cases consist largely in treatment directed toward the original cause, but fre- quently these are either of little avail in removing the vessels or else the process is so slow, that the cornea becomes irre- parably scarred in the meantime. The necessary adjunct to ^Abstract of a clinical lecture delivered at the Medico-Ckirurgical College, Philadelphia, Pa. jMirvrs f* L. WEBSTEft FOX H vtOa Walnut