Roentgen therapy in vitreous hemorrhage and hemorrhagic glaucoma.

Abstract

The use of the roentgen ray for hemorrhage in the eye is not new. Gradle (2) reported his experience with this method of therapy for retinal vein thrombosis in 1937, giving credit to Hessberg for using roentgen irradiation as a therapeutic measure in retinal hemorrhage as early as 1920. Guyton and Reese (5) have more recently reported their use of x-rays in cases of retinal disease characterized by new-formed blood vessels. Schultz (3) credits von Graefe with reporting recurring intraocular hemorrhage in young adults as early as 1855 and states that Henry Eales of Birmingham gave the first adequate description of this condition in a paper published in 1880, entitled “Cases of Retinal Haemorrhage Associated with Epistaxis and Constipation.” Gradle concluded that in his experience roentgen therapy was not entirely successful in preventing secondary glaucoma in cases of retinal vein thrombosis, but he did feel that some value was indicated by his “few statistics.” He did not believe that blood clots were mor...