Ophthalmology [antikvár]

Prrface Many medicaJ students and physicians are intimidated by ocular problems. The eye receives scant attention in most medical school curricula, allowing ophthalmology to be perceived as a mysterious specialty, somehow outside the mainstream of medicine. As I hope this book demonstrates, this is not true. Some exposure to ophthalmology should be part of every medical student's clinical experience. I decided to write this book because, in my dealings with medical students, I was impressed that few were able to acquire a coherent understanding of ophthalmology in the short time available unless the material presented was imbued with a single perspective. I have tried, therefore, to write about selected aspects of clinical ophthalmology in a way that rewards reading from cover to cover, later material using previously developed concepts and terminology, to present my understanding of the reasons why we ophthalmologists do what we do. After nine of the ten chapters there is a brief, clinically oriented discussion of a topic relevant to the preceding chapter's subject that adds to or expands upon what might be considered the core material in the chapter proper. Between the seventh and eighth chapters I have tried to explain the actions of the extraocular muscles, with emphasis on the superior oblique. This is important both in understanding strabismus and motor neuro-ophthalmology and is often confusing to novices. I have included practical advice: how to evaluate and treat and when to refer. My subspecialty is neuro-ophthalmology, a discipline that stands as a nexus between ophthalmology and the specialties of internal medicine, neurology, and neurosurgery. Consequently I have tried to emphasize information from ophthalmology that is useftil in the evaluation of patients widi systemic disease. This work differs from most other beginning texts in that it assumes a basic knowledge of the physiology of the eye and deals with anatomy only when clinically relevant. My judgment is diat a clinician writing a clinical textbook has a large enough task, and excellent reviews of ocular anatomy, pathology, and physiology are readily available elsewhere. Because so much is necessarily left out, I include selected references to provide a guide for ftirther reading when time and interest allow. These are of two types: monographs that are standard reference works or, in my opinion, will provide suitable access to the areas they cover and recent papers in commonly available, refereed journals. J.W.G. ' i ¦ ¦ i