Electric Light Baths, Sandbags, & Retinal Detachments

A century ago, if you were so unfortunate as to have developed a retinal detachment, the likelihood of having your retina reattached, much less retaining any vision at all, was slim to none. A 1912 survey by Derrick Vail, Sr., a founding member and president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology, queried American ophthalmologists regarding their knowledge of successful retinal detachment outcomes. Near three hundred ophthalmologists responded and only 20 successful cases in their total cumulative experiences could be documented. With these figures, the incidence of successful retinal detachment outcomes was estimated at about one in every thousand, small hope indeed. Of course, one can appreciate why this might have been the case when they consider common therapy for retinal detachments in the era included medically induced sweats, electric light baths, sandbags, or simply months of bed rest. Fast-forwarding to the modern age, detachment surgery success rates are now well over 90%, and a number of techniques are presently available to achieve favorable outcomes and the recovery of meaningful vision. Now, most of us don’t give much thought to our likelihood of success after retinal detachment surgery, if any time is dedicated to the consideration of retinal detachments at all, so it’s difficult to appreciate these numbers, but modern retinal detachment surgery is truly one of the great achievements of 20th century medicine and surgery. We'll consider retinal detachments and how they come about in more details in my upcoming posts.