The First Cataract Surgeons in the British Isles.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

To describe the entry of cataract surgery into the British Isles.

Methods

Handbills, books, and other historical sources were reviewed to determine when cataract surgery was first performed in the region.

Results

Roman artifacts suggest that couching was performed in the British Isles in antiquity. Seemingly miraculous cures of blindness during the early Middle Ages might be consistent with couching. However, there is no strong evidence of medieval cataract surgery in the region. Cataract couching probably arrived in England by the 1560s, in Scotland by 1595, in Ireland by 1684, and in Anglo-America by 1751. Before the 18th century, cataract surgery was taught within families, apprenticeships, and mountebank troupes. Beginning in the 17th century, congenital c

SUBMITTER: Leffler CT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8446104 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature