Summerskill's dacryocystorhinostomy.

THE routine excision of lacrimal sacs with obstructed drainage is bad surgical practice, and the provision of drainage through the lacrimal bone into the middle meatus of the nose has become the accepted procedure. In past years the time-consuming operation of Toti and its modifications have been accepted as the only satisfactory methods of achieving this aim. These operations, however, are tedious and troublesome, and require much experience for consistent success. But the work of Summerskill (1952) has demonstrated clearly that excellent drainage can be achieved and maintained by the simplest of methods. His operation has certainly not received the attention it deserves, for it represents a great advance on any other previously published procedure. We have been experimenting with this method since 1953, and have achieved almost consistently good results. Since it has presented for our busy eye-clinics so many advantages in speed, simplicity, and effectiveness, we decided to publish a small series of cases in the hope that this procedure would win far more general acceptance than it has done previously. This report represents the experiences obtained by using Summerskill's method, slightly modified, in a series of 36 consecutive cases of naso-lacrimal obstruction operated on at our annual eye-clinics in Shikarpur and Khairpur, Pakistan, in January, February, and March, 1955.