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The retina and ocular tension during prolonged insulin coma; with autopsy eye-findings

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Conclusions

In prolonged insulin coma of 10 days duration:

  1. 1.

    The retina appears to escape damage, although the brain sustains extensive injury.

  2. 2.

    The ophthalmoscope reveals no gross pathology. This finding supports one reported in a previous paper—that the fundi are negative in functional psychoses surviving routine insulin shock therapy.

  3. 3.

    The intraocular tension remains uniformly low, and fluctuates inexactly with the spinal pressure.

  4. 4.

    The intraocular tension has no relation to the blood pressure, or blood and spinal sugar levels.

  5. 5.

    The finding of lowered intraocular tension corresponds to that of most investigators who report the same in routine insulin comas of short duration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Islip State Hospital, Central Islip, N. Y.

    Alexander Gralnick M. D.

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  1. Alexander Gralnick M. D.
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Published simultaneously by arrangement with the American Journal of Ophthalmology, October, 1941.

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Gralnick, A. The retina and ocular tension during prolonged insulin coma; with autopsy eye-findings. Psych Quar 15, 648–661 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01585121

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01585121

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