Credé procedure is the practice of washing a newborn's eyes with a 2% silver nitrate solution to protect against

neonatal conjunctivitis Neonatal conjunctivitis is a form of conjunctivitis (inflammation of the outer eye) which affects newborn babies following birth. It is typically due to neonatal bacterial infection, although can also be non-infectious (e.g. chemical exposure). I ...

caused by ''

Neisseria gonorrhoeae ''Neisseria gonorrhoeae'', also known as ''gonococcus'' (singular), or ''gonococci'' (plural), is a species of Gram-negative diplococci bacteria isolated by Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser, Albert Neisser in 1879. It causes the sexually transmit ...

''. The Credé procedure was developed by the German physician

Carl Siegmund Franz Credé Carl Siegmund Franz Credé (23 December 1819 – 14 March 1892) was a German gynecologist and obstetrician born in Berlin. In 1842 he received his doctorate from the University of Berlin. In 1852 he became director of the "Berlin School of Mid ...

who implemented it in his hospital in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

in 1880. Between 1881 and 1883, Credé published three papers in '' Archiv für Gynäkologie'', each titled "Die Verhütung der Augenentzündung der Neugeborenen" (Prevention of inflammatory eye disease in the newborn), describing his method and its results. The original procedure called for a 2% silver nitrate solution administered immediately after birth; however, this was eventually reduced to a 1% silver nitrate solution to reduce chemical irritation to the newborn's eyes. In the 1980s, silver nitrate was replaced by

erythromycin Erythromycin is an antibiotic used for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections. This includes respiratory tract infections, skin infections, chlamydia infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, and syphilis. It may also be used duri ...

and

tetracycline Tetracycline, sold under various brand names, is an oral antibiotic in the tetracyclines family of medications, used to treat a number of infections, including Acne vulgaris, acne, cholera, brucellosis, plague (disease), plague, malaria, and sy ...

treatments, which are better tolerated by the eye and more effective against '' Chlamydia trachomatis'' in addition to ''N. gonorrhea''.

Notes

The works "Archiv für Gynäkologie" are freely available in the public domain.

References

Obstetrical procedures Sexually transmitted diseases and infections {{surgery-stub