Historical facts to cataract surgery

Historical facts to cataract surgery
The earliest references of surgical treatments on the eye with sharp instruments were reported from physicians of the former Babylonia and India (approximately 500 BC.), although there are indices that eye surgeries have already been carried out in the old Egyptian times. This type of cataract surgery is known in England as “couching” or reclination. Inflammations and blindness was common in ancient times, due to the predominant bad hygienic conditions.
The operation techniques did not change much in the medieval ages.

Approximately from the 18th century onwards, more precise data on the development of cataract surgery is known:

• around 1750 Tadini, Italy: idea of an artificial glass lens

• 1766 Casaamata, Italy: the first successful attempt of implanting a glass lens 

• 29.11.1949 Harold Ridley, Great Britain: first implantation of a PMMA- intraocular lens.
  It was recorded through pilots injured by glass splinters from shattered canopies of fighter planes that the acrylic glass (Polymethyl methacrylate or PMMA) seemed to be compatible with the eye. Due to this observation made by ophthalmologists in the Second World War, PMMA was chosen as an adequate material.
• 1958 C. Binkhorst, Netherlands: Development of the Iris-Claw-Lens

• 1967 C. Kelman, USA: Introduction of phacoemulsification with ultrasound

• 1984 T. Neuhann und H. Gimbel: Introduction of capsulorhexis (1987)

• 1990 M. McFarland, USA: First Clear Cornea Incision

• 1997 Introdution of the first foldable multifocal lenses with FDA accreditation

• 1998 Ph. C. Jacobi, Introdution of keyhole surgery in cataract treatment through „drip anesthesia“