vol1 - Page 220
Page 220
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He_itt concurs:
The risk of inva_ive surgery, meaning
filtration operations, are extremely great.
......
They are worse in the young than in the old.
They are worse in the pigmented than in the
non-pigmented, and they are worse in the non-
open angleA_gucoma than direnal [open angle
glaucomal. _I
......_
An attempt by Government atto_vney_ Ms. Shirley, to
quantify the nnmher of patients whose sight might be compromised
by surgical procedures resulted in the following exchange:
...... Merritt: If you have a population of people
who have end-stages severely compromised
optic nerves_ and you operate on them . . ®
then about three out of about ll people went
blind.
Shirley: At some point in time_
Merritt: The next morning.
Shirley: Three out of ll?
MerTitt: That's right. This was the
standard filtration operation.
Unfortunatelys Rwipe-out# can also occur
later. It can occur at the second or third
week later. So, these are the risks that you
take when you operate on an eye that's
severely damaged in the optic nerve.
Merritt continues:
The more common complications are infections
and the cataract formation that occursf and
the need to have subsequent surgery done for
the cataract that came about as a
d_gt
result of the filtration operation° _
_8_Q/ Cross_examination of Dr. John Merritt, Tr. i0-59-60.
Merritt draws his estimate from a study conducted in St. Louis on
patients with _end_stage u glaucoma.
____I/ /__. at i0-60--I0-61. Merritt also engages in a more
detailed discussion of the post-surgical Swipe-out syndrome _
relative to end=stage glaucoma under cross-examination by Mr.
Zeese I_d® at I0_207--I0-208.
t
147
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