There Are Many People Named After The Village Castroviejo

By Patrice McCoy


In a beautiful part of Spain near La Rioja is a village named Castroviejo. Many people carry the name of this village around the world as their surname and some have become famous. However, the village itself remains quite obscure and has actually managed to decline quite substantially over the years in terms of human population. Now it has far fewer people than it did in 1857. It seems that it has exported its people.

Ramon Castroviejo was one person who made the name famous. He was born in Logrono in 1904. This is nit far to the north of the village. The young man trained as a medical doctor in Madrid and later emigrated to the USA where he worked as a medical doctor. In time he actually owned his own hospital and made his name as an eye surgeon. He tried to Madrid and died in Spain in 1987.

During his life Ramon made a significant contribution in the field of corneal transplantation. He was not the first to do this kind of surgery but performed some groundbreaking techniques which established new procedures. In 2012 new developments have overtaken his work but it is not forgotten because it was part of the development of techniques that are still in use.

The cornea of the eye can become inflamed for a number of diverse reasons. This impairs the sight and can be extremely painful. In corneal transplantation a doctor stitches a healthy cornea from a donor onto the eye of the patient. There are many variations of this procedure but the delicacy of the operation and the great skill involved is obvious to all.

Corneal transplantation began in 1905 when Eduard Zirm used tissue from a dead donor to graft new tissue onto a patient. It was in 1936 that Ramon Castroviejo performed a major operation using a ground breaking surgical technique and improving a patient's sight significantly.

Microscopy has developed since then and new materials have become available for sutures. However the array of fine precision instruments now available still owes much to the early work of ophthalmologist who pioneered the work. The fine curves and applications of particular shapes and specifications have been derived from very specialized operations.

Lay people can only imagine the fine precision of surgical instruments that eye surgeons need to perform operations on such delicate organs as the eyes. Calipers, knives, clamps and curettes are all made with such finesse that the prices are actually quite surprisingly cheap, considering the quality of the craftsmanship and circumscribed circle of buyers.

Though the heart may be the seat of the emotions the eye is often called the window to the soul. Therefore, the instruments that inspired the delicate techniques of Castroviejo are almost like works of art in their finesse. Yet each has its explicit function in the extremely complicated procedures for which it is intended. Though there may not be very people who aspire to be eye surgeons such delicate instruments could attract the interest of collectors.




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