Prophylaxis of Ophthalmia Neonatorum
نویسنده
چکیده
(1) Purulent conjunctivitis affecting newborn babies is not invariably due to the gonococcus but may be caused by streptococci, staphylococci, or even B. coli and B. proteus. (2) Blindness from this cause in England has been reduced from approximately 25 per cent. of all blind children in 1920 to 9 per cent. in 1940. (3) This improvement began when the use of the Crede method of prophylaxis with silver nitrate became universal in England. (4) Silver nitrate is superior to other antiseptics because it is non-specific, and because it acts in two ways: by precipitating as a thin film of silver chloride on the surface of the conjunctiva, mechanically entangling all organisms, and by producing a non-specific inflammatory reaction in the sub-conjunctival tissue, leading to the formation of the lymphoid layer earlier than it would normally appear and so strengthening the resistance of the eye to infection.
منابع مشابه
Prophylaxis of gonococcal and chlamydial ophthalmia neonatorum. A comparison of silver nitrate and tetracycline.
We evaluated the use of silver nitrate drops and tetracycline ointment for the prophylaxis of ophthalmia neonatorum in a controlled trial involving 2732 newborns in Nairobi, Kenya. The overall rates of prevalence of intrapartum maternal gonococcal and chlamydial infection were 6.4 and 8.9 percent, respectively. After prophylaxis with silver nitrate, the incidence rates of gonococcal, chlamydial...
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Ophthalmia neonatorum is a form of conjunctivitis occurring in infants younger than 4 weeks. It can be a leading cause of blindness in newborns. In this random clinical case-control study, ophthalmia neonatorum was investigated in one university centre. In this study, prophylactic effect of normal saline and ophthalmic erythromycin was compared with a group not receiving any prophylaxis. The fi...
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The use of silver nitrate as prophylaxis for neonatal ophthalmia was instituted in the late 1800s to prevent the devastating effects of neonatal ocular infection with Neisseria gonorrhoeae. At that time - during the preantibiotic era - many countries made such prophylaxis mandatory by law. Today, neonatal gonococcal ophthalmia is rare in Canada, but ocular prophylaxis for this condition remains...
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