Experimental Endophthalmitis Phacoanaphylactica in Rabbits

In 1922, Verhoeff and Lemoine1suggested that a certain type of postoperative intra-ocular inflammation following cataract extraction might be due to a reaction between retained lens substance and ocular tissues hypersensitive to lens substance. This suggestion was based on the fact that many of the persons with postoperative inflammation were sensitive to lens substance when tested by intracutaneous injections of lens extracts of human and animal origin. Normal persons tested with the same extracts did not react cutaneously. Verhoeff and Lemoine also found a characteristic histologic picture in the eyes removed after the development of the inflammation. In these eyes, the lenses were invaded by leukocytes and macrophages, and there were no demonstrable bacteria. For this type of intra-ocular inflammation they suggested the term, endophthalmitis phaco-anaphylactica. The foregoing hypothesis differs from that of Lagrange and Lacoste2and Straub3in that these writers postulate a primary toxicity of