PANOPHTHALMITIS. 



General suppurative infiammalion of eye. Experimental cases. From 

 traumas. Diagnosis ; foul wound, violent eye inflammation, yellow puru- 

 lent appearance, high fever, involves second eye. Treatment : antiseptic, 

 enucleation. 



This term has been appHed to a general purulent inflammation 

 of the eye resulting from infection with pus germs entering from 

 without through traumatic injuries, or b}' rea.son of inflamed tis- 

 sues, or on the other hand, reaching the eye as a general infec- 

 tion through the blood. It may begin therefore, as conjuncti- 

 vitis, scleritis, or keratitis, and gradually extend to active infec- 

 tion of the iris, choroid, and ciliary body. 



Moller produced an experimental case in a foal by the injec- 

 tion of the staphylo-coccus pyogenes aureus into the anterior 

 chamber. In 24 hours there was violent inflammation : the eye- 

 lids were closed, the conjunctiva dark red, and a mass of glairy 

 pus under the eyelid. The cornea was cloudy throughout, 

 though still dimly transparent so that the accumulating pus in 

 the anterior chamber could be seen. The iris was strongl}^ di- 

 lated and the eyeball abnormally tense. The second day the 

 bulb was visibly enlarged, the eyelids greatly swollen, the con- 

 junctiva infiltrated so as to cau.se chemosis, and the cornea com- 

 pletely opaque. The infiltration of the orbit caused the eyeball 

 to protrude from its sheath. A high fever set in and on the fifth 

 day the foal died. 



Cases in the lower animals are usually the result of direct in- 

 fection through some traumatic lesion of the eye. 



The special feature of the disease is the rapid and abundant 

 production in all parts of the eye of pus cells until the whole or- 

 gan has become a bag of pus. 



The chief diagnostic symptoms are the presence of a foul 

 wound, the rapid advance of the phlegmonous inflammation of 

 the conjunctiva and lids, the yellowish opacity of the cornea, and, 

 if visible, of the aqueous humor, the prominence of the entire 

 eyeball, the high attendant fever and the early destruction of the 



421 



