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To the Editor.
—I am writing this letter in response to LCDR Hoefle's article entitled "Initial Treatment of Eye Injuries," in the January 1968 issue of the Archives.I think that LCDR Hoefle's statement regarding policy in avoiding enucleations in perforating wounds is quite misleading. I am presently in the chain of evacuation of patients with serious eye injuries from the USS Repose (where LCDR Hoefle was stationed) as well as other medical installations in Vietnam. I can also say that I have seen no sympathetic ophthalmia. But this dreaded complication may occur months after initial injury (and rarely occurs less than two weeks after injury)—by this time, under present conditions, the patient is not only evacuated out of Vietnam but out of Japan and back to the United States.It is my opinion that studies on sympathetic ophthalmia must be made later and that a statement now