History of Iridotomy

It is difficult for us to appreciate the conditions which brought about so large a percentage of cases of pupillary occlusion. Crude surgical procedures, poor operative technic and the utter lack of asepsis often resulted in iridocyclitis or iridochorioiditis. The couching of the4 lens, the free discussion of both hard and soft cataracts, the frequent introduction of the knife-needle through the dangerous ciliary zone, and the bungling efforts at extraction all increased the tendency to inflammatory reaction, while inadequate therapeutics and lack of antiphlogistic measures frequently permitted the deposit of plastic exudate in the pupillary area, thus resulting in membranous occlusion of the pupil.