The operative procedure to be discussed in this article may not be new to some ophthalmologists. I have not seen it described, however, in the literature or in textbooks on ophthalmology and believe it to be of sufficient value to deserve emphasis.
Not infrequently extraction of the lens must be performed when, as the result of preceding iritis or iridocyclitis, the iris is adherent to the lens and there is more or less pupillary membrane. The need for removing the lens may be due to senile cataract, to complicated cataract or to the impossibility of obtaining an effective pupil without sacrificing a clear lens. In some cases extraction of the lens is required to relieve intractable secondary glaucoma resulting from iridocyclitis. In such cases operation for cataract should not be undertaken until the inflammatory process has long been quiescent, but in spite of this precaution surgical intervention often causes a