Case of cysticercus cellulosæ in the anterior chamber of the human eye.

  • Mackenzie, William, 1791-1868.
Date:
[1848]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of cysticercus cellulosæ in the anterior chamber of the human eye. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    and that the inflammation ceased suddenly as soon as the hydatid dropped into the anterior chamber, where it lived at its ease, amply furnished with sustenance from the aqueous humour, and unrestrained by any external cyst, such as that which surrounds the same entozoon when lodged among the muscles. 2d. As it was resolved to extract the hydatid by au incision through the cornea, I tried no application to the eye with the view of killing it, such as the vapour of hydro- cyanic acid, lest the entozoon being killed might excite inflammation, which it evidently had not commenced to do since assuming its place in the aqueous humour ; and lest the very means used to despatch it might cause irritation of the eye, and thereby render the operation more hazardous. 3d. Forewarned by what happened in Neumann’s case, I refrained also from dilating the pupil by belladonna. In that case the cysticercus slipped into the dilated pupil, and remaining there, caused such irritation that the pupil could not by any further application of belladonna be dilated sufficiently to set the hydatid free from its embrace. Under these circumstances, a needle was passed through the cornea, and the cysticercus depressed. By this means the pupil was freed, and the pain removed. But the crystalline lens must have been sacrificed, and what is worse, on the third day severe inflammation set in, and the eyeball suppurated.* 4th. In operating on Elizabeth Gordon I imitated the plan followed by Dr. Schott, in a case related by Dr. D. W. Soemmerring,t the only difference being that he used a pair of forceps for extracting the hydatid, while I employed Sehlagintweit’s hook, an instrument admirably suited by the smallness of its size, the certainty of its gripe, and the guard upon its point, for being introduced into the interior of the eye, seizing any of the membranous textures, such as the iris or the crystalline capsule, and extracting them without catching in the wound. It is by far the best instrument, for instance, for Freytag’s operation of extracting a secondary * Rust’s Magazin, vol. xxxiii. f Oken’s Isis for 1830.