Unexpected
eye injuries can occur any time with blunt as well as sharp objects.
Blunt
injuries can occur with a rubber ball, plastic ball, tennis ball
or with a hand or any other object. Direct hit on the eye can
cause hematoma of the lids (black eyes), sub conjunctival hemorrhage
depending on the force of injury. Rarely if the injury is very
forceful blood can get collected in the anterior chamber of the
eye (hyphaema) or a vitreous hemorrhage can occur. Occasionally
an injury may result in retinal detachment.
Sharp
injuries can happen with objects like pencil, pen, knife, long
fingernails, bow and arrow or any other similar object. Injuries
may be superficial or deep. In superficial injuries there may
be corneal aberrations, which can be treated by antibiotic drops
instillation and patching of the eye. Deep injuries can prove
serious as it may lead to perforation of the eyeball. In such
cases hospitalization is a must and surgery may be performed depending
on which structure is affected. If the eyelids are cut through
it will need alignment of the lids with repair of ocular tissues.
Other structures of the eye like sclera, cornea lens etc. may
also be affected, which have to be treated by surgery and IOL
implantation.
Rarely
one may face an intraocular foreign body. An air gun pellet or
a wooden stick or a steel particle may enter the eye, which will
need localization and removal. Localization may require X- Ray
and sonography.
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Last
updated on 22-10-2001
