Ophthalmia neonatorum : with especial reference to its causation and prevention / by Sydney Stephenson.
- Stephenson, Sydney, 1862-1923
- Date:
- 1907
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Ophthalmia neonatorum : with especial reference to its causation and prevention / by Sydney Stephenson. 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.
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![883) suggested the addition of the following rule to those laid down by the Ophthalmological Society for the prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum : Directly a child is born to wipe its eyes with a soft cloth, particularly in each inner canthus or corner, using in the act of wiping gentle pressure rather than friction. Korn {Arch. f. Gynak., XXXI, 2 1887, p. 240) in order to prevent ophthalmia, irrigated the vagina with sublimate and as soon as the head was born, cleansed the eyelids and surrounding parts by cotton soaked in plain water, fresh pieces being used until the parts were perfectly clean. Until the process was completed, every effort was made to prevent the baby from opening his eyes. After complete birth, but before the cord was severed, the face and head of the infant were washed in the way described. The baby's hands were kept from his eyes until such time as they had been well washed. In a series of 100 cases treated by this plan no single case of ophthalmia occurred. Encouraged by these results, Korn then gave up prophylactic douchings of the mother's vagina, and employed the other plan alone. Among 1,000 babies treated in this way there were three cases of ophthalmia, or 0'3 per cent. Korn made the striking statement that the babies even of mothers who suffered from granular vaginitis or other evidences of gonorrhoea] infection remained free from ophthalmia. Snell's experiences {Lancet, September 1, 1888) were very similar. He also adopted the simple expedient of wiping away secretions with a morsel of lint moistened with water as soon as the head was born. During three years, 2,242 labours took place in the Jessop Hospital for Women, Sheffield. In the first 200 labours there were a few cases of purulent ophthalmia, but in the last 2,000 not a single case occurred. From these several facts it seems evident that infection of the eyes usually occurs soon after birth, for otherwise it is difficult to understand what influence the method adopted by Hague and Schirmer and Porter and Korn and Snell could have had in preventing ophthalmia. Admitting (as I think we must) that inoculation soon after birth is the commonest cause of ophthalmia in babies, it becomes easy to comprehend that the disease, as manifested by the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21002290_0088.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
