Contagious Ophthalmia; Acute and Chronic (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: patient should always lie upon the side corresponding to the inflamed eye, so as to prevent discharge running into the sound eye. 3. Acute Granular Ophthalmia.?Acute symptoms must be controlled with iced applications, the daily use either of a 2 per cent, solution of silver nitrate or of a 5 to 10 per cent, solution of largin, and the frequent removal of discharge by means of any of the lotions men- Bcller's Shield. tioned when speaking of muco-purulent ophthalmia. When the swelling and redness of the conjunctiva have lessened, the treatment will be that of a specific folliculitis, which will be fully described upon a later page. 4. Membranous Ophthalmia.?In dealing with this disease, the practitioner should first ascertain whether it isor is not associated with diphtheria bacilli. If the characteristic organisms cannot be found, the case should be treated upon the general lines laid down when discussing muco- purulent conjunctivitis?that is, by the local application of antiseptics. Otherwise, antitoxin must be injected without delay. The good effects of that remedy (which has passed far beyond the experimental stage) are attested by the results of many reported cases. Indeed, its action is little short of marvellous, and must impress anybody who has had an opportunity of watching the uncertain results of the older methods. A few hours after serum has been injected the fibrinous conjunctival deposit begins to soften, and is thrown off as shreds of grayish tissue within the next twenty-four hours. At the same time, the remaining symptoms undergo improvement and the general state of the patient changes for the better. Some of my own cases appeared to be cured within a couple of days, although the symptoms were severe when first placed under treatment. Experience has show...