Iritis Following Cataract Extraction

operations. The cause in most cases is an infection which occurs at the time of operation; but it may sometimes be derived from the surface of the wound and is occasionally endogenous. Its onset is favoured by any condition which debilitates the patient, such as diabetes, pyorrhoea, and gastro-intestinal disturbances, and by the presence of lens matter in the anterior chamber."(l) This subject of iritis following extraction of the lens, more particularly in its capsule, was suggested to me by a remark that intracapsular operators were inclined to disregard or overlook those cases of early iritis. The cause of a postoperative intra-ocular inflammation such as iritis may be due to direct infection at the time of operation, or may be endogenous, but in the majority of cases the iritis, which one sees from the fourth to the tenth day after extraction of the lens, is due to the retention of foreign material such as blood, capsule, cortex, or to traces in the anterior chamber of strong antiseptic fluids used in cleansing the conjunctival sac. In the case of capsule and cortex, thejrritation is said to be due to the liberation in the anterior chamber of protein bodies, the protein being crystallin, a globulin obtained from the crystalline lens. If, as the figures below show, blood is a causal factor then the irritant may be globin, (the protein radicle of haemoglobin),