2016/04/01 by Christopher T. Leffler, Ricardo Wainsztein · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · #History of Science and Medicine #History of Medicine Studies #History of Science and Natural History
paper · pdf · doi:10.2147/opth.s105825
openalex publication_date 2016/04/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
We strove to identify the earliest cataract surgeons in Latin America. Probably by 1611, the Genovese oculist Francisco Drago was couching cataracts in Mexico City. The surgeon Melchor Vásquez de Valenzuela probably performed cataract couching in Lima by 1697. Juan Peré of France demonstrated cataract couching in Veracruz and Mexico City between 1779 and 1784. Juan Ablanedo of Spain performed couching in Veracruz in 1791. Cataract extraction might have been performed in Havana and Caracas by 1793 and in Mexico by 1797. The earliest contemporaneously documented cataract extractions in Latin America were performed in Guatemala City by Narciso Esparragosa in 1797. In addition to Esparragosa, surgeons born in the New World who established the academic teaching of cataract surgery included José Miguel Muñoz in Mexico and José María Vargas in Caracas. Although cataract surgery came quite early to Latin America, its availability was initially inconsistent and limited.