The subjects of evisceration and enucleation of the eyeball are just now commanding more attention than in the past, especially in view of the fact that they are to be made the subjects of special inquiry at the next meeting of the International Medical Congress at Paris. Barring special conditions and indications, both enucleation and evisceration have their advantages and disadvantages.
The advantages of the former are a rapid healing of the wound with the minimum of local reaction, and the absolute certainty that it will not be followed by sympathetic inflammation in the other eye. Its disadvantages are that it is more radical than necessary, in that it removes too much tissue and leaves a very poor stump for an artificial eye.
The disadvantages of evisceration are just the opposite of the advantages of enucleation, viz., a considerable local reaction and an occasional case of sympathetic inflammation. Though the