Anaesthesia and non-anaesthesia in the extraction of cataract : with some practical suggestions regarding the performance of this operation, and comparative statistics of two hundred cases / by Hasket Derby.

  • Derby, Hasket, 1835-1914.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anaesthesia and non-anaesthesia in the extraction of cataract : with some practical suggestions regarding the performance of this operation, and comparative statistics of two hundred cases / by Hasket Derby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    19/36 (page 17)
    induces, with the head of a family, a feeUng of re- pose that close proximity would go far to destroy. Early morning is selected for the operation, a good breakfast having been allowed, and the eserine applied, as has already been desci'ibed, an hour or more in advance. The patient awaits the surgeon undressed and in bed. The eye that is not to be touched is closed by several short strips of isinglass plaster, crossing each other. A short preliminary drill in turning the eye in any given direction, with- out any corresponding movement of the head, will be found of much use, the patient being directed to roll the eye up, down, or to either side at the re- quest of the operator, without straining and with- out holding the breath. In the case of very deaf people it is well to arrange a little code of signals in advance, a tap on the forehead being understood to mean a direction to look up, one on the chin to look down. I employ no assistant in cases where ether is not given, though I always have a trained nurse in the room. The only service she ordinarily renders is handing the iced sponges as they are needed, and supporting the head while the bandage is being applied. The operation proper may be divided into three parts; the first comprehending the cut, the iridec- tomy, and the opening the capsule; the second the delivery of the lens; and the third the clearing of the pupil and the reposition of the iris. First part. The speculum having been intro- duced, and locked in such a position as to secure