Rubeosis iridis diabetica is one of the most disastrous ocular diseases, for it usually involves both eyes and, with rare exceptions, causes uncontrollable glaucoma. In none of the 32 cases of this disease found in the literature could miotics control the tension. Surgical procedures, such as iridectomy (Arruga1), iridencleisis (Kurz1), trephination (Motolese,1 Gallino,1 Kurz,1 Fehrmann,1 Sugar1), cyclodialysis (Salus1) and posterior sclerotomy (Fehrmann1), were useless, or even disastrous. The intolerable pain caused by glaucoma necessitated enucleation in several cases. Fralick,1 in his excellent and comprehensive paper on this subject, reported on the removal of 4 eyes in 3 cases of diabetic rubeosis iridis. Any attempt to save a fraction of the vision, or even the eyeball alone, is worth while in a case of this desperate condition. In the 2 cases reported here cyclodiathermy was performed with the latter purpose.
REPORT