Sir Percivall Pott And His Contribution To Cataract Surgery
Published 2026 - 44th Congress of the ESCRS
Reference: POCAT265 | Type: Poster | DOI: 10.82333/7rkf-0z54
Authors: Dr Georgios N Balanikas* 1 , Dr Dimitrios Pirounidis 1 , Dr konstantinos Theodoridis 1 , Dr Thanos Gerebakanis 1 , Dr Kostas Boboridis 1 , A/Prof. Nikolaos Georgiadis 1
1A' Ophthalmologic Clinic,Medical School of Thessaloniki,Thessaloniki,Greece
Purpose
Sir Percivall Pott (1714-1788) was a famous surgeon and is considered as the Father of Orthopaedics but he also dealt with cataract and other ophthalmic conditions. In this presentation we will discuss his contribution to ophthalmic surgery dealing with cataract and fistula lachrymalis
Setting
The facts took place in London during the life of Percivall Pott and worked in St Bartholomew’s hospital in London for about fifty years.
This work was conceived and completed in Ophthalmologic Clinic of AHEPA Hospital (Thessaloniki, Greece)
Methods
His compedium "The Chirurgical Works of PERCIVALL Pott" is the source of this presentation and other sources of this period as well many other writtings from other contributors and collegues of his era
Results
In this compedium the part about cataract is composed by thirteen pages with ten detailed footnotes describing the methods and the surgical outcome for each of his cases. He define the condition of the cataract according to its progress of opacification and the surgical outcome. He believes that cataract should be hard for extraction and the shoft will cause complications even for couching.
In the chapter of the fistula lachrymalis which composed from 48 pages with a lot of detailed footnotes he refers to the methods of surgery from the ancients to his era.In this part he describes also the methods of opening the lachrymal ducts.
Conclusions
Sir Percivall Pott was a very competent surgeon who also had involved in ophthalmic surgery. His great contribution were the methods of cataract surgery in his era and the confrontation of the closing or the infection of fistula lachrymalis. He is generally regarded as one of the two greatest surgeons of the 18th century along with his student John Hunter who is considered as the father of military surgery. His interest and involvement with ophthalmic surgery shows his holistic love and dedication for surgery. at all.