Otto Haab was a Swiss ophthalmologist who was a native of Wülflingen, which today is a district in the city of Winterthur

Winterthur

Winterthur is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. It has the country's sixth largest population with an estimate of more than 100,000 people. In the local dialect and by its inhabitants, it is usually abbreviated to Winti...

. In 1875 he obtained his doctorate from the University of Zurich

University of Zurich

The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....

, where, as a student, he was an assistant to Karl Joseph Eberth

Karl Joseph Eberth

Karl Joseph Eberth was a German pathologist and bacteriologist who was a native of Würzburg.In 1859 he earned his doctorate at the University of Würzburg, and became an assistant to anatomist Albert von Kölliker...

 in pathological anatomy. In 1886 he succeeded Johann Friedrich Horner

Johann Friedrich Horner

Johann Friedrich Horner was an ophthalmologist based at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.After receiving his medical degree from the University of Zurich in 1854, Horner continued his studies in Vienna and Berlin. While in Berlin, he was an assistant to the renowned ophthalmologist Albrecht...

 as professor of ophthalmology at Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, a position he held until 1919.

Otto Haab made contributions involving pathological anatomy

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

 of the eye, as well as treatment of eye-related lesion

Lesion

A lesion is any abnormality in the tissue of an organism , usually caused by disease or trauma. Lesion is derived from the Latin word laesio which means injury.- Types :...

s. In 1885 he clinically described senile macular degeneration

Macular degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration is a medical condition which usually affects older adults and results in a loss of vision in the center of the visual field because of damage to the retina. It occurs in “dry” and “wet” forms. It is a major cause of blindness and visual impairment in older adults...

, and investigated the atrophic

Atrophy

Atrophy is the partial or complete wasting away of a part of the body. Causes of atrophy include mutations , poor nourishment, poor circulation, loss of hormonal support, loss of nerve supply to the target organ, disuse or lack of exercise or disease intrinsic to the tissue itself...

 and pigmentary changes in the macula

Macula

The macula or macula lutea is an oval-shaped highly pigmented yellow spot near the center of the retina of the human eye. It has a diameter of around 5 mm and is often histologically defined as having two or more layers of ganglion cells...

r region of the eye associated with the condition. His name is associated with several medical eponyms, including "Haab's reflex", which is another name for pupillary light reflex, and "Haab's magnet", a powerful magnet

Magnet

A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, and attracts or repels other magnets.A permanent magnet is an object...

 used for removing metallic particles from the eye. Also, the "Haab scale" is a device used to measure pupil

Pupil

The pupil is a hole located in the center of the iris of the eye that allows light to enter the retina. It appears black because most of the light entering the pupil is absorbed by the tissues inside the eye. In humans the pupil is round, but other species, such as some cats, have slit pupils. In...

lary diameter, and "Haab's striae" are horizontal breaks in the Descemet membrane associated with congenital glaucoma

Glaucoma

Glaucoma is an eye disorder in which the optic nerve suffers damage, permanently damaging vision in the affected eye and progressing to complete blindness if untreated. It is often, but not always, associated with increased pressure of the fluid in the eye...

.

Selected publications

• Atlas und Grundriss der Ophthalmoskopie und ophthalmoskopischen Diagnostik Munich, 1895. (5th edition, 1908; translated into English and French)
• Atlas der äusseren Erkrankugen des Auges nebst Grundriss ihrer Pathologie und Therapie Munich, 1899. (4th edition, 1910; translated into English and French)
• Atlas und Grundriss der Lehre von den Augenoperationen Munich, 1904. (2nd edition, 1920; translated into English and French)