How To Treat Retinal Detachment
Find all retinal holes, bring the retina and choroid into apposition, create a chorioretinal reaction, and maintain the chorioretinal adhesion. These are the principles of retinal detachment surgery.
The understanding of retinal detachment repair, and the millions of people it has helped, was only discovered during this century, but ranks number 7 on our list of millennium discoveries.
The ophthalmoscope and its invention in 1850 by Hermann Helmholtz (1821- 1894) play a pivotal role in this story. Prior to this discovery, in vivo retinal evaluation and the pathophysiology underlying retinal detachment repair were not able to be demonstrated.
Adolf Coccius (1825-1890), in an article describing his new ophthalmoscope in 1853, mentions seeing retinal tears. The immense significance of this observation was to remain clouded in controversy for the better part of 50 years. The central figure in the retinal detachment story is Jules Gonin (1870- 1935), a Swiss ophthalmologist who spent most of his years in Lausanne, his native home. He first observed the importance of retinal tears in the development of retinal detachments in 1903. In 1920, he developed the idea of sealing the retinal holes in order to re-attach the retina.
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