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Jacques Daviel performed the first documented planned primary cataract extraction on Sep. 18, 1750

Eye (2023)Cite this article

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Did Jacques Daviel of France move “…cataract surgery forward from the millennia of couching to the first true cataract extraction in 1747” as Borkenstein and colleagues wrote [1]? Daviel did state in 1752 that he had earlier (in 1747) removed lens fragments from the posterior chamber following a failed couching [2, 3]. However, this secondary surgery in the wig-maker Garion was not a planned primary extraction.

Daviel’s letters and advertisements of 1748 and 1749 [4], and his log [5] confirm that from 1746 to June 1749, he performed no cataract extractions, except for in Garion. Daviel never publicly claimed to have performed cataract extractions where he practiced from July 1749 to June 1750: Paris, Auxerres, Péronne, Cambrai, and Douai [4]. Reports from Cambrai in May 1750 and Liège in July and August 1750 laud Daviel without mentioning a revolutionary cataract procedure [4].

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Fig. 1: The Regensburg newspaper Staats-Relation der neuesten europäischen Nachrichten und Begebenheiten announcing Daviel’s cataract extraction in Cologne.

References

  1. Borkenstein AF, Packard R, Dhubhghaill SN, Lockington D, Donnenfeld ED, Borkenstein EM. Clear corneal incision, an important step in modern cataract surgery: a review. Eye. 2023;37:1–3.

  2. Daviel JA, Pearce WG. On a new method to cure cataract by extraction of the lens by Jacques Daviel, translated by W. G. Pearce. Brit J Ophthalmol. 1967;51:449–58.

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  3. Leffler CT, Klebanov A, Samara WA, Grzybowski A. The history of cataract surgery: from couching to phacoemulsification. Ann Transl Med. 2020;8:1551.

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  4. Leffler CT, Hogewind BF, Schwartz SG. The first planned cataract extraction from the posterior chamber by delivery of the lens which Jacques Daviel documented was performed on September 18, 1750. Presented at the Cogan Ophthalmic History Society. Sacramento, CA. 2023.

  5. André L, Daviel J. “Liste des Malades a qui J’ai Fait l’extraction de la Cataracte de la Chambre Postérieure de l’oeil par la nouvelle methode que j’ay inventé a Marseille depuis 1745.” Manuscrit inédit de Jacques Daviel. Par le Médecin Général Inspecteur Louis André. Communication à la Société Francophon’ d’Histoire d’ l’Ophtalmologie. Le 8 mai 2004 à Paris France. Provence historique: Revue Trimestrielle. 2005: 421–433. Available from: https://www.snof.org/encyclopedie/un-manuscrit-in%C3%A9dit-de-daviel. Accessed June, 2023.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, 23298, USA

    Christopher T. Leffler

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, Richmond VA Medical Center, Richmond, VA, USA

    Christopher T. Leffler

  3. Department of Ophthalmology, Medical Center Haaglanden, The Hague, the Netherlands

    B. Frits Hogewind

  4. Department of Ophthalmology, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Naples, FL, USA

    Stephen G. Schwartz

  5. Department of Ophthalmology, University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, Poland

    Andrzej Grzybowski

  6. Institute for Research in Ophthalmology, Poznan, Poland

    Andrzej Grzybowski

Authors
  1. Christopher T. Leffler
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  2. B. Frits Hogewind
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  3. Stephen G. Schwartz
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  4. Andrzej Grzybowski
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Contributions

CTL and BFH identified primary sources. CTL, BFH, SGS, and AG analysed and interpreted the primary sources. CTL wrote the first draft of the letter.

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Correspondence to Christopher T. Leffler.

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Leffler, C.T., Hogewind, B.F., Schwartz, S.G. et al. Jacques Daviel performed the first documented planned primary cataract extraction on Sep. 18, 1750. Eye (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-023-02874-5

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