The electro-magnet in removal of steel from the interior of the eye / by Alvin A. Hubbell.

  • Hubbell, Alvin A. (Alvin Allace), 1846-1911.
Date:
[1898]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The electro-magnet in removal of steel from the interior of the eye / by Alvin A. Hubbell. 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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    came into use, that the instrument marks an epoch in the thera- peutics of this class of injuries. The following cases have come under my observation: Case I.—Michael Sullivan, aged forty-three, machinist His left eye was struck with a piece of steel, June 18, 1884. He says the sight was destroyed at once. He was attended by another surgeon in this city, who enucleated the ball. On the morning of the 27th of the following August, two months after the accident to the left eye, while striking a sett a chip of steel flew into the right eye. It caused very little pain the eye watered some, and vision was pretty good. He at once sought advice, and was told that the steel could be seen in the back part of the eye. He entered St. Francis' hospital and on the following day, the 28th, while anaesthetized an unsuccessful attempt was made to remove the steel through'the wound which the latter had made. I have been informed that an electro-magnet was used. The doctor, failing to extract the steel, and declining to make or allow any further efforts at its extraction, was discharged, and the patient was placed in my hands on the evening of August 30th, eighty hours after the accident. The eye, at this time, was in constant pain, with a pricking sensation 111 its upper part, and vision was reduced to counthV fingers at two feet. There was considerable lachrymation the eyelids were somewhat swelled, the eyeball was very red'and the lower conjunctiva was chemotic. There was a wound at the junction of the lower part of the cornea and sclerotic two or three mm. long. This was still open with a bead of vitreous press- ing through it. The pupil was not round, a piece of iris having probably protruded through the wound and been cut off On using the ophthalmoscope, the fundus was found to be cn-eatly obscured by either hemorrhage or inflammatory products, or by both. The steel could not be seen; I had the assurance how- ever, that it was in the vitreous, and it was evident that it had entered at the lower corneo scleral junction, through the iris and suspensory ligament of the lens, and without wounding the lens as this was perfectly transparent. It was apparent that the steel must soon be extracted or the eye would be lost and the patient blind. This, it seemed to me might be done with the needle of a good electro-magnet intro- duced directly into the vitreous, through an incision of the sclerotic near the equator of the ball. The first thing needful how- ever, was an electro-magnet, and this I did not possess, and I did not know where I could at once obtain one. I, therefore, applied for aid to an electrician of this city. I told him what I wanted, and suggested the principle upon which an instrument should be