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Improved form of Slitlamp Microscope
EDITORIALS ested in work in ophthalmic preven tion or needs help in such matters, would do very well indeed to consult with this organization. Lawrence T. Post. IMPROVED FORM OF SLITLAMP MICROSCOPE The popularity and general employ ment of any piece of medical apparatus depend upon several factors: first, knowledge of its existence; second, un derstanding of its purposes and advan tages; third, the facility with which it can be used from day to day by the av erage worker; and, lastly, its cost. There are today few ophthalmolo gists who do not know of the existence of the slitlamp microscope, but many who have a limited understanding of its purposes and advantages. The cost of the more elaborate slitlamp micro scopes to which the name is properly restricted leaves much to be desired. But many perhaps have also avoided the apparatus because it appeared to be complicated and unwieldy. The mechanical objections to the slit lamp apparatus most widely used are clearly enumerated by Comberg (Klinische Monatsblatter fur Augenheilkunde, 1933, volume 91, page 577), di rector of the University Eye Clinic at Rostock, Germany. Especially incon venient is the need for detailed read justment of the light source in going from one eye to the other, with the in cidental swinging of the long bar of the slitlamp carrier across the body of the examiner. The second difficulty consists in the necessity for repeated and separate ad justment of the microscope and the slitlamp for the purpose of studying dif ferent parts of the eye, a necessity which employs both hands of the ex aminer. Changes in intensity of illumi nation and in width of the slit call for disturbing changes in the position of the examiner and in the direction of his gaze, and are usually complicated by disturbance in adjustment of the image of the slit. In the radically modified form of the
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slitlamp microscope devised by Com berg,* these inconveniences have been avoided and other material improve ments have been introduced. The origi nal model of this apparatus has been in use by Comberg for over three years, and was briefly demonstrated at the In ternational Congress in Madrid. Both the microscope and the lamp revolve upon the post which supports the patient's chin and forehead. The whole apparatus becomes very much more compact. The troublesome long arm carrying the slitlamp in the old ap paratus is replaced by a very short arm, the beam of light being at first directed vertically and then turned horizontally by means of a prism. While the slitlamp image is being ad justed in relation to the patient's eye, the microscope is swung to one side. Once the patient's head is set at the proper height, either eye is brought into the necessary relationship with the microscope and lamp by means of a screw which displaces the head an inch or so to one side or the other. This, in combination with the up and down ac tion of the head rest, and with a much longer image of the luminous slit (eight millimeters) enables the observer to vary the position of the "object" (the patient's eye) almost as conveniently as one varies the position of the object beneath an ordinary microscope. Some of the arrangements included in this new apparatus are so obviously superior to those of the old slitlamp mi croscope that one wonders why they were not long ago incorporated in this increasingly important weapon of ophthalmologic diagnosis. But it is com mon experience that new devices ap pear simple and obvious when once the brain of the inventor has given birth to them. It is to be hoped that some day the manufacturer will see his way to produce an apparatus at much less than the present cost. In so doing it is not at all unlikely that he would actu ally increase his own profits by a great addition to the number of buyers.
W. H. Crisp. * In collaboration with the firm of Carl Zeiss.
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slitlamp microscope devised by Com berg,* these inconveniences have been avoided and other material improve ments have been introduced. The origi nal model of this apparatus has been in use by Comberg for over three years, and was briefly demonstrated at the In ternational Congress in Madrid. Both the microscope and the lamp revolve upon the post which supports the patient's chin and forehead. The whole apparatus becomes very much more compact. The troublesome long arm carrying the slitlamp in the old ap paratus is replaced by a very short arm, the beam of light being at first directed vertically and then turned horizontally by means of a prism. While the slitlamp image is being ad justed in relation to the patient's eye, the microscope is swung to one side. Once the patient's head is set at the proper height, either eye is brought into the necessary relationship with the microscope and lamp by means of a screw which displaces the head an inch or so to one side or the other. This, in combination with the up and down ac tion of the head rest, and with a much longer image of the luminous slit (eight millimeters) enables the observer to vary the position of the "object" (the patient's eye) almost as conveniently as one varies the position of the object beneath an ordinary microscope. Some of the arrangements included in this new apparatus are so obviously superior to those of the old slitlamp mi croscope that one wonders why they were not long ago incorporated in this increasingly important weapon of ophthalmologic diagnosis. But it is com mon experience that new devices ap pear simple and obvious when once the brain of the inventor has given birth to them. It is to be hoped that some day the manufacturer will see his way to produce an apparatus at much less than the present cost. In so doing it is not at all unlikely that he would actu ally increase his own profits by a great addition to the number of buyers.
W. H. Crisp. * In collaboration with the firm of Carl Zeiss.