Ocular emergencies and their prevention
Aetiology:-
Blunt injury
- Fist
- Other blunt objects
Penetrating injury
- Fragments such as glass, metal, wood knife, stick or other large objects
Chemical injury
- Alkaline
- Acid
Foreign bodies
- Glass, metal, wood, plastic
Trauma
- Blunt
- Penetrating/ perforating
Burns
- Chemical
- Thermal
Thermal injury
- Directburn from curling iron or other hot surface
- Indirect burn from UV light (welding torch, sun lamp)
Mechanical injury
c/f - Swelling and discoloration of the tissue
- Bleeding into the tissue and structures of the eye
- Pain
Treatment
- Conservative management
- Cold compress
- Suturing
- Antibiotic/ steroidal eye drops
Penetrating / Perforating injury
- Eye is pierced-by sharp object
- Surgical intervention eg. Vitrectomy, keratoplasty
- Rest
- Eye bandage
- Suturing
- Antibiotic/ steroidal eye drops
Foreign body in the eye
- May superficial, or penetrated to the eye
- Extra ocular foreign bodies: dust, dirt, contact lenses, sand, cosmetics
Treatment:
- Do not touch or rub
- •Wash eye with plenty of water/ saline
- Conjunctival FB: remove by sterile swab stick
Intraocular foreign bodies: particle of iron, stone, wood pieces
Treatment :
- Correct localization of FB
- Surgical removal of FB in OT
- Antibiotics
- Handheld electromagentic device for magnetic FB
Chemical burns of the eye
- True opthalmic emergency, Acid/ Alkali Burns
Treatment;
- Irrigation of the eye with saline/ sterile water continuously
- Treatment based on the injury. caused
- Necrotic conjunctival/ corneal debridement
- Penetrating keratoplasty, cataract extraction
- Promote epithelial healing
- Pain medications
- Antibiotics
Radiation injury to the eye
- Infra-red, gamma, ultra-violet, roentgen rays
- c/f- after a period of 6-8 hrs, first symptom is foreign body
Treatment:
- Preventive actions, dark glasses
- Cold compress
- Steroid, antibiotic drops, analgesics
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