Radiography of the eye and orbit: a historical overview

The history of radiography and orbital imaging begins in 1895 with Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of x-rays. Over the next three quarters of a century, radiographic pioneers like Dr. William Sweet, who developed the Sweet method, and Dr. George E. Pfahler, who made the first successful pictures of a brain tumor, helped to bring radiography into the 20th century. With each new radiologic innovation producing a forward surge followed by a period of refinement, new methods were invented and utilized to their diagnostic limits. But perhaps none of the radiologic innovations of this century--the Coolidge tube, the Potter-Bucky diaphragm, tomography and angiography-will have more impact than computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.