SURGICAL INTERVENTION ON THE CILIARY BODY

Abstract

The idea of acting on the ciliary body to reduce the aqueous output and consequently to lower the intraocular tension is not a recent therapeutic advance. From the cyclotomy of Hancock¹and Abadie,²the sclerocyclotomy with thermocautery of Fiore³and the cyclectomy of Verhoeff⁴developed. Other clinical or experimental attempts to reduce eye tension by means of cauterizations of the pericorneal or ciliary region were performed by Hamburger⁵(silver nitrate cauterizations), by L. Weekers,⁶by Puscariu and Cerkez,⁷by Favaloro⁸(following the technic of Schoeler⁹), by Preziosi¹⁰and by Curran.¹¹The two latter aimed also at a good filtration by perforating the sclera with galvanocautery. All these procedures had, however, only a restricted number of followers because of the fear that excessive damage to the ciliary body might arise. A new epoch in this field was opened by the