No abstract

This article presents the scientific and social work of Benedikt Adamandiadis and the history of the "Adamandiadis-Behçet syndrome". The authors also attempt to describe the inestimable contribution to modern Greek ophthalmology. It is not the authors' intention to underscore Adamandiadis' importance as the discoverer of the syndrome - for him, the fulfillment of his duties as a scientist and a human being was always more important than personal fame -, but merely to correct an historical injustice.

The right eye of a 17-year-old patient had been injured by a metallic, nonmagnetic foreign body which had perforated the eye at the limbus at 6 o'clock and become lodged in the posterior part of the ciliary body near the ora serrata. The operation to remove the foreign body was unsuccessful. After three months without any inflammatory reaction the patient noticed it in the conjunctiva. The splinter had been spontaneously rejected via the same route by which it had entered the eye; it was removed from the point of entry under local anesthesia. The special circumstances which, in the authors' opinion, led to spontaneous rejection of this foreign body are discussed.

Andrade's disease, which is a type of familial amyloidosis, is not common in Greece and seems to be restricted to the region of Heraklion, Crete. The authors describe a case of Andrade's disease which began with ocular symptoms when the patient was 29. After two years the full clinical picture of the disease developed. The ocular symptoms are often the first manifestations of this fatal disease. The paper includes the family tree of the patient, proving the hereditary origin of the disease.

The authors give a short report of ophthalmic treatment in Asclepieia by the priests, who had learned these cures through tradition from other priests. This can be testified by the writings on the stone tablets, which were found in the excavations of the Asclepieion at Epidaurus (1883). They give information concerning illnesses and their treatment. From this historical source we selected certain cases with eye-diseases and their treatment. Included is a part from Aristophanes' comedy "Ploutos", giving interesting ophthalmic treatments. These treatments by the priests, representing God Asclepius, mainly took the form of medicines and operations performed in a psychologically mysterious atmosphere.