Diseases and injuries of the eye : their medical and surgical treatment / by George Lawson.

  • George Lawson
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases and injuries of the eye : their medical and surgical treatment / by George Lawson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    from fibrinous effusion into the subcutaneous tissues. The conjunctiva of the lid is found on eversion to be smooth, dry, and pale from constriction of the palpebral vessels. The lower lid then becomes similarly affected, and the conjunctiva of the globe chemosed, not, as in catarrhal ophthalmia, fi-om serous effusion, but from exudation of fibrine. As the disease advances, the swelling and red- ness of the lids increase; there is great jiain and heat, and a thin discharge with flocculi of lymph oozes from the eye. This after a few days becomes purulent, and the rigidity of the lids begins to subside. During the pro- gress of the disease, fibrinous exudations will occasionally take place on the conjunctival surfaces of the lids and globe, either as small isolated grey patches, or else as a continuous membrane, whicli may be peeled off. The cornea is specially a])t to suffer in this disease. It first becomes hazy, portions of its epithelium are then detached, and an ulcer is formed, which may lead to perforation and jirolapse of the iris; or parts of the cornea may slough. During the process of repair, which afterwards follows, the fibrinous exudations on the lining membrane of the lids are thrown off, and the conjunctiva appears almost bared of its epithelium. Cicatrization and contitection now set in, and not unfrequently cause some inversion or eversion of the lid. Treatment.—At the commencement of the disease. Von Graefe recommended a strictly antiphlogistic treatment, and if the health of the patient permitted it, he placed him quickly under the influence of mercury. As local applications, he relied chiefly upon iced compresses to the eye and leeches to the temple, the latter being frequently used in large numbers. In the second stage, when there is a punilent discharge, he advised the conjiinctival siirfaces of the lids to be toitched with the solid mitigated nitrate of silver (F. 5, No. 2); or if preferred, they may be painted with a solu- tion of the strength of gr. 10—gr. 20 ad aquae 3 1. After the nitrate of silver has been applied, either by stick or in solution, thirty or forty seconds shoiild be allowed to elapse, and then a stream of cold water, or weak salt and water, gr. 5 ad aqufe 5 1, should be dii-ected over the parts, to wash away or neutralize any surplus of the drug which may remain, and prevent its affecting in- juriously the cornea. When the lids cannot be everted, either on account of the swelling or pain, a solution of the
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