It had been suggested long ago that some suction apparatus should be used for removing the lens from the eye, in order to improve upon the results of cataract surgery. In 1902, Stoewer performed intracapsular cataract extraction on two human patients, using a spoon-shaped disc of small size, attached to a rubber balloon. Harrington suggested that this was apparently not the first such operation because suction by the mouth had obviously been thought of before. T o provide stronger suction, Hulen (1910) pumped out the air from a demijohn and attached the suction cup to the flask by means of a rubber tube; however, the strength of suction could not be controlled. He reported on six cases of intracapsular cataract extraction performed by this method.Zgnacio Barraquer (1916) attached his erysiphake by means of a rubber tube to a motor-driven air pump and only 4 of the 1000 cataract operations performed by this method ended with a rupture of the capsule of the lens. The failure of this method in gaining wide-spread acceptance is due to the unusual strength of suction and to a complete lack of control.For these reasons the suction cups simplified after Dimitry (1939) and Castrowiejo are attached to small rubber balloons, are therefore light and the strength of suction can be controlled. The erysiphakes devised by Thomas, Bell (1948), Guillaumat, and others on the basis of the above idea are essentially representing a return to the original suggestion made by Stoewer. These instruments have the serious fault that even the smallest excess pressure applied after the lens has been gripped will permit the flow of air into the cup and it will let the lens go. To avoid this, Harrington (1951) constructed an erysiphake, with which the rubber tube for suction is in a pencil-shaped metallic capsule *) An instrument put on show at the scientific instruments exhibit, at the 1st Congress
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