[The glaucoma theory of CF Heerfordt].

Abstract

Based on numerous microscopical slides from two eyes from two patients suffering from "inflammatory" glaucoma Christian Frederik Heerfordt (1871-1953) put forward his very original theory in 1910-14: Some cases of intractable glaucoma are caused by occlusion of one (or two) vortex veins, sometimes with a flap, a sino- scleral plate into the sinus ( ampulla). Surgical treatment could be iridectomy in the sector with the occlusion, or perhaps better by blood- letting of the occluded vortex- vein. Heerfordts theory was damned by the Danish Ophthalmological Society as un-scientific and the messages in the danish newspapers un- etical. The consequences for science and for Heerfordt personally are discussed.