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Home | Resources | Eye Trauma

Eye Trauma

by Chris Nickson, Last updated May 17, 2016

Overview

  • Eye trauma can result in a range of injuries, both blunt and penetrating.

Types of injuries

Blunt trauma

Following the anatomical structures of the eye from front to back, the important injuries are:

  • lid injury
  • orbital blow-out fracture
  • corneal abrasion
  • anterior hyphema
  • traumatic mydriasis
  • lens dislocation
  • vitreous hemorrhage
  • retinal detachment
  • traumatic iritis
  • ruptured globe

Penetrating trauma

The major types of penetrating eye injury are:

  • eye lid lacerations
  • corneal lacerations
  • scleral lacerations
  • perforating trauma (+/- an exit wound) including occult foreign body penetration (e.g. when metal strikes metal)

There may also be associated injuries to:

  • intraocular structures — e.g. lens, iris, retina
  • extraocular structures — e.g. lids, extra-ocular muscles, orbital bones, optic nerve and brain

References and Links

Lifeinthefastlane.com

  • Ophthalmology Befuddler 013 — Eyes Wide Split
  • Ophthalmology Befuddler 031 — Blunt Trauma to the Eye
  • Ophthalmology Befuddler 033 — Bashed, Blind and Bulging

Journal Articles and Textbooks

  • Ehlers JP, Shah CP, Fenton GL, and Hoskins EN. The Wills Eye Manual: Office and Emergency Room Diagnosis and Treatment of Eye Disease (5th edition). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008.

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About Chris Nickson

An oslerphile emergency physician and intensivist suffering from a bad case of knowledge dipsosis. Key areas of interest include: the ED-ICU interface, toxicology, simulation and the free open-access meducation (FOAM) revolution. @Twitter | + Chris Nickson | RAGE | INTENSIVE| SMACC

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Based on a work at https://lifeinthefastlane.com

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