The first cataract extraction operations

Abstract

Abstract.The first written record of cataract surgery dates back to 2250 BC, when King Hammurabi of Babylon created a law regarding the outcome of cataract surgery. The first detailed description of cataract surgery was written by an Indian ophthalmologist Maharishi Sushruta in the sixth century BC. Sushruta performed the first couching - reclining operations. "Couching" means that the blurred lens is embedded in the vitreous, or fundus of the eye. At that time, because the scientists had no idea about the structure of the lens and the pathogenesis of the cataract, they believed that the cataract was a membrane in the pupil area and tried to cut it. They wanted to enter the anterior camera with a sharp instrument and tear the "membrane". In the 10th century AD, the Iraqian ophthalmologist Ammar Al-Mawsili began using a new method in cataract surgery - the "suction" method. Ammar Al-Mawsili was the first to say that cataract is blurring of the lens. Ammar ibn Ali Al-Mawsili first invented a hollow thin metal needles with sharp points for syringes. Through that needle, Ammar entered the eye through the sclera behind the limbus and suctioned out the contents of the soft cataract. These operations performed by Ammar Al-Mawsili are considered to be the first successful extraction operations in the history of ophthalmology. In 1748, Jacques Daviel made a right-sided widely corneal incision, passed through the pupil with a small spatula, and extracted the lens from the posterior chamber. CONCLUSION. Cataract extraction, that is, operations based on removing the clouded lens from the eye rather than destroying it inside the eye, was first performed by Ammar ibn Ali Al-Mosuli. Today's cataract surgery is based on Jacques Daviell's extraction technique. But as modern ophthalmology advances, the ultimate goal of ophthalmic surgeons is to reduce the size of the incision for removing the cloudy lens to the size of a needle tip. This means that cataract surgery has progressed from the Daviel technique to the Ammar technique.