The operative treatment for retinal detachment has gone through several phases, and a method has now been arrived at which is being quite uniformly used. The ignipuncture of Gonin and the potassium hydroxide method of Guist have practically been given up ; electrocoagulation is the present method of choice. Electrocoagulation produces an adhesive choroiditis which binds the retina and the choroid together and thus closes off the pathologic focus, whether it is a hole, a rupture, a disinsertion or an area of degenerative changes in the retina. Apparently large areas may be coagulated without damaging the integrity of the eyeball.
The success of the operative treatment has led to the study and investigation of detachment of the retina in all its phases, so that the knowledge concerning the clinical aspects has been greatly increased ; perhaps the greatest advance is the recognition of the frequent presence of a hole in