Ophthalmic surgery takes place in children of all ages, from premature neonates to teenagers, the majority of whom are ASA 1 or 2. In some cases, the ocular pathology may be part of a wider congenital or metabolic abnormality and anaesthesia is not so straightforward. Nearly all will require general anaesthesia. Anxiety can be common in children returning for repeated procedures, and premedication may be necessary. Surgery can be extraocular or intraocular. Simple day-case procedures can usually be managed with an inhalational spontaneous breathing technique and supraglottic airway device (SAD). Certain more complex cases necessitate a completely still eye, and muscle relaxation is therefore usually required. Special anaesthetic considerations are management of the oculocardiac reflex (OCR), commonly elicited by traction on the recti muscles and prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV); strabismus surgery is particularly emetogenic. The majority of ophthalmic surgery is not particularly painful, and simple analgesia with paracetamol and NSAIDs is sufficient. Regional ophthalmic blocks, such as sub-Tenons, can supplement or offer an alternative to opiates when additional analgesia is required. This has the added advantage of producing akinesis of the globe and a beneficial reduction in PONV and the OCR.

The pupil allows light to enter the human body. Without the pupil, the human brain would not have an accurate representation of the world. The structure of the eye next to and behind the pupil is described in this chapter. It will emphasize that the pupil is not actually an anatomical structure, but is formed by the arrangement of two muscle groups that embryologically are part of the brain.

Chapter 23 sets Goethe’s Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours) in context. Colour had been the subject of intensive study, both aesthetic and scientific, in the eighteenth century, and the chapter reconstructs the many influences on Goethe and his contemporaries, from the recent discoveries of Herschel and Ritter, to earlier figures, above all Newton, but even Aristotle and Hippocrates. The chapter also presents the central tenets of Goethe’s Farbenlehre, with a particular focus on the theoretical first part, which offers a physiological theory of colours and deals with the physical nature of light.

This chapter details the eye diseases (conjunctivitis, keratitis, retinitis and scleritis) caused by viruses and other organisms (adenoviruses, enteroviruses, HSV, measlesvirus, influenzaviruses, VZV, CMV, Toxoplasma gondii, molluscum contagiosum, papillomaviruses and HHV8). It details symptoms, epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment.

Chapter 19 investigates the conceptual mappings of conventional figurative expressions, specifically idioms and collocations containing the body-part term nwun “eye(s)” in Korean. Working within the framework of conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson 1980), the study explores the types of conceptual shift that give rise to extended meanings and discusses how extension mechanisms draw on shared features between source and target domains. Common Korean expressions involving the eyes involve vision, persons, time, events/processes, perception (e.g., attention, attraction, interest, judgment), mind activities (e.g., thinking, knowing, understanding), and emotions (e.g., anger, avarice, surprise). These figurative expressions are motivated by the basic experiences of eye behavior, eye appearance, and vision, as well as by our interactions with people and environments. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of the influence of embodiment in language in general and in Korean in particular.

Decreased vision in the aged population poses significant morbidity and decreases quality of life. At least one third of the American population over age 65 has significant vision compromise due to ophthalmic disease. Decreased vision limits independence and poses significant economic and societal burdens. Ophthalmic disease in the elderly poses significant challenges to patients and providers due to the vast and diverse spectrum of ophthalmic conditions, and therefore requires specialized care by optometrists and ophthalmologists.

Ophthalmic diseases are seen at a higher frequency in aged patients and include structural changes, malignancies, and infections of the eyelids and orbit. In addition, diseases such as cataracts, age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), glaucoma, and ischemic optic neuropathy are seen at a significantly higher incidence in elderly patients and can result in severe vision loss. Routine ophthalmic care is required to identify, manage, and treat such diseases in order to prevent sequelae, optimize independence, and preserve vision. Medical therapies, surgical intervention, low-vision aids, and social support systems can be utilized to aid in treatment.

The abnormal animal featured here is a frog with its eyes in its mouth. In order to explain how it got that way, the chapter describes how retinas induce lenses. That leads to a discussion of induction in general and to a consideration of the overall strategies that animals use to build their anatomy.

The second chapter studies the efforts of the Christian Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, whose workshop in ʿAbbāsid Baghdad translated the Galenic sources considered in this book, to enhance the respectability of the specialism of ophthalmology in his Ten Treatises on the Eye. I show that, even more so than medicine, ophthalmology was at a disadvantage in its pursuit for epistemic authority because Galen himself had attacked the sub-field as an exemplar of the worrying tendency among doctors in Rome and other cities towards specialization, which threatened the unity of the discipline and the health of patients. Concerned with his own intellectual status at court, Ḥunayn, I argue, subversively uses Galen's explanation of the Timaeus' description of the eyes' service to the rational soul to give ophthalmologists a stake in medico-philosophical controversies relating to sensation. I also expose how Ḥunayn modifies Galen’s interpretation of Plato’s teleological ocular anatomy and visual theory in order to privilege the eye over all other organs as a window to cosmic knowledge.