Clear lens extraction in the 19th century--an early demonstration of premature dissemination.

Clear lens extraction for correction of high myopia is a concept known since at least 1800, but was performed only occasionally because of the hazards of cataract operation in general in the era before aseptic surgery. After the invention of sterilization, in 1889 a rush for myopia correction by clear lens extraction was started by Fukala in Austria/Germany and Vacher in France. It took 10 years until a retrospective comparison of operated and non-operated eyes revealed the high complication rate after clear lens extraction. After 1900, the "myopia operation" was increasingly abandoned and eventually disappeared.