Penetrating War Wounds of the Eye and Orbit.

FROM Sicily into Italy and onwards during many months as the terrain and nature of the fighting changed so to some extent has the type of wound and the surgical problem involved, although fairly constant throughout. Types of wound.-Military ophthalmic surgery is at present chiefly concerned with penetrating wounds due to high velocity fragment missiles resulting from high explosive action, the cause of 99 per cent. of battle casualties and accidents necessitating operation by the military ophthalmic surgeon. The other odd 1 per cent. of wounds are due to flying steel chips resulting,from striking cold steel with a steel hammer, the commonest cause of intra-ocular foreign bodies in civil life. This type of injury is similar to a single high explosive fragment wound and presents an identical problem for investigation and treatment. On the other hand war wounds of the eye and orbit due to high explosive action are often multiple,-with additional wounds of the head, face, nose and ears, which suggests cooperative surgery by head, maxillo-facial, E.N.T. and ophthalmic surgeons.