72 



VETERINARY SURGICAL OPERATIONS 



which can only be curtailed by destroying all reflexes, pre- 

 vent accurate execution, and must, therefore, be controlled 

 by profound anaesthesia. 



Cataract knife. 

 Blunt hook. 



Needle and silk suture, or an eye 

 speculum. 



A common, sharp-pointed curved bistoury may be sub- 

 stituted for the cataract knife,- and the hook may be impro- 



INSTRUMENTS.— i. 



2. 



3- 



™ ft 



Fig. 32 — Knives and Hook for Keratocentesis. 



vised from any kind of bendable wire, the only special re- 

 quirements being a smooth surface and a rounded, non-pene- 

 trant point. The needle and sutures are used as par excel- 

 lence the best substitute for an eye speculum. (See step i.) 

 TECHNIQUE.— First Step.— Adjusting the Speculum.— 

 The eye speculum, a spring-wire affair, is placed beneath the 

 lids, which it separates by its tension. When the anaesthesia 

 is a profound one and the patient as a consequence thereof 

 is perfectly still, the speculum will remain in place well 



Fig. 33 — Eye Speculum. 



enough, but when only local anaesthesia is depended upon the 

 movements of the head, the attempts to wink and the rolling 

 of the eye-ball will usually dislodge it from its position and 

 thus prove exceedingly annoying. In this event the author 

 keeps the eye open by passing silk threads each about a foot 

 long, through the center of each lid, and then detailing an as- 

 sistant to draw the lids apart with them. In this manner the 

 eye is widely opened and the seat of puncture is kept per- 

 fectly accessible without hindrance. 



Second Step. — Puncturing the Globe. — The bistoury or 



