Surgery of tumours of the ciliary body and base of the iris.

UNTIL recently enucleation was the only method of treating tumours originating in the ciliary body, or originating in the iris and invading the ciliary body. Early reports on the possibility of removing such tumours without sacrificing the globe (Lindner, 1937, 1942; Kolen, 1942, 1952; Stallard, 1951; Friede, 1953, 1956; Kopp and Ozhigar, 1959, 1961) were largely ignored by ophthalmic surgeons, probably because of the general opinion that the ciliary body should never be touched. Muller, Niessen, Niesel, and Lund (1960), at a meeting of the German Society of Ophthalmologists, showed a film which illustrated in detail all stages of surgery of tumours of the ciliary body in sixteen cases, and this series of case reports was followed by the publication of several articles (Flieringa, 1961; Stallard, 1961, 1964; Diamond, Borley, and Miller, 1964; Borley and Miller, 1965; Linnic, 1966a, b), showing that excision of one-quarter of the ciliary body may be tolerated by the eye without much difficulty. A histological check is essential to establish that the zone of surgical interference is surrounded by perfectly healthy tissue-complete recovery is possible only under this condition.