The contribution of Albrecht von Graefe to clinical medicine (on the 190th anniversary of birth)

Abstract

Ophthalmoscope introduction to clinical practice by Hermann Helmholtz in 1850 allowed Albrecht von Graefe to make a number of discoveries and scientific proposals concerning ocular fundus pathology. His contribution to ophthalmology included retinal artery embolism description, differentiation between central and diffuse recurrent syphilitic retinitis, optic neuritis description and much more.
Albrecht von Graefe devoted seven years of his scientific work to the study of amblyopia, eye muscles functioning, strabismus and its surgical correction. Later, he described in detail the symptoms of ocular muscle paralysis and clinical manifestations of diphtheria and benign renal conjunctivitis outlined the ways of drug treatment of these diseases. Von Graefe identified eye pressure as the main cause of glaucoma and stated that patients could be saved from glaucoma by means of IOP reduction. When treating a patient with complete coreclisis, A. von Graefe performed an iridectomy and noticed that the eye became softer after the operation.
This prompted the doctor to think about the possibility of using this operation in glaucoma treatment. It is important to note that at the first International Ophthalmological Congress in Brussels in 1857 von Graefe made a report «On the nature and treatment of glaucoma by means of iridectomy.» This operation brought him world fame, saved many glaucoma patients from blindness and is still used in wide ophthalmological practice. In 1859 von Graefe proposed a method of cataract extraction by peripheral linear section, which helped eliminate the divergence of the patch cut edges. For this cut von Graefe invented a special long and narrow scalpel subsequently named after him. Time has shown that von Graefe theories and discoveries still form the foundation of our knowledge in ophthalmology