TREATMENT OF RETINAL GLIOMAS BY THE FRACTIONATED OR DIVIDED DOSE PRINCIPLE OF ROENTGEN RADIATION

Abstract

If radiation therapy could be so administered as to destroy or control retinal glioma without undue injury to the function of the eye, there could be no question as to the superiority of this method over surgical removal of the involved eye, but a review of the literature will reveal that up to this time radiation therapy has met with little success in the treatment of this disease. Enucleation of one eye for unilateral glioma has been reasonably successful and is justifiable as a life-saving measure. Should the remaining eye show later involvement, or should bilateral involvement be evident from the beginning, enucleation of both eyes and total blinding of the child, even as a life-saving measure, would in the average case be so repugnant both to the physician and the parents as to make the natural course of the disease preferable, despite the blindness and death which would inevitably