Abstract
The treatment of purulent conjunctivitis will always be of great interest to every practitioner in ophthalmology, and when the chairman of this Section asked me to read a paper on this subject I acceded, and the more willingly because the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary has a separate building, isolated from the main structure, which is devoted exclusively to the treatment of contagious diseases of the eye. For five years all cases of purulent ophthalmia applying to the institution for treatment have been promptly admitted to this building. The result has been that there has been brought together in the records of this pavilion a large number of cases, and this paper is chiefly a study of these records, to ascertain if possible which methods of treatment have been the more successful. In looking over thirteen text-books published in the last twenty years, I find recommended the following measures
Highlights
In the purulent conjunctivitis of the new-born babe, commonly known as Ophthalmia neonatorum, it is, by no means an unusual thing for several days to have elapsed since the commencement of the inflammation before the patient comes under the care of the oculist
The person bringing the child is instructed to wash the eyes out every hour, in bad cases aight and day, and to apply an antiseptic lotion, the different surgeons favouring one more than another, boracic chloride acid, boroglyceride, pyoktanin; creolin of mercury 1 in 5,000 is used by perMr
After having from the cornea with dossils removed of lint, the the discharge cornea is found dull of appearance, like that of a dead fish, or with much chemosis, swelling around it, so that it appears sunk, and is in imminent danger from the cutting off of its blood supply by this swelling constricting the marginal vessels, attempts must be redoubled to subdue the inflammation and swelling, and hot fomentations are ordered, atropin drops instilled to dilate the iris, lest inflammation may spread to it, and it be bound down by plastic effusion, at the same time antiseptic washes being freely used
Summary
In the purulent conjunctivitis of the new-born babe, commonly known as Ophthalmia neonatorum, it is, by no means an unusual thing for several days to have elapsed since the commencement of the inflammation before the patient comes under the care of the oculist.
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