EVALUATION OF THE SURGERY OF CONGENITAL CATARACTS

Abstract

IN THE textbooks of ophthalmic surgery very little space has been devoted to a consideration of congenital cataracts. In recent years, however, and especially since the recognition of the rubella cataract, new interest in the subject has developed. Care of congenital cataracts is clearly a matter of first importance, to the community as well as to the patient; and this fact suggested that an attempt to evaluate the various surgical procedures currently in practice might serve a useful purpose. Congenital cataract is usually not discovered until the child is several weeks or months old, and partial cataract which leaves some vision intact may be overlooked for an even longer time. The very narrow pupils of newborn babies, their habit of sleeping a good deal, and their inability to fix very often obscure the fact that they do not see. Certain forms of congenital cataract show a hereditary tendency. Marner¹