Common Eye Injuries

Your eyes, like any other part of your body, are not safe from injuries. Here are some of the common eye injuries:

Scratched eye (corneal abrasion). Getting poked in the eye or rubbing the eye when a foreign body is present, such as dust or sand, are common causes of abrasions to the eye’s surface (corneal abrasions). Corneal abrasions are extremely unpleasant, causing eye redness and extreme light sensitivity. Scratches might also render your eye vulnerable to bacteria or fungus infection. A scratch can allow bacteria and fungus to enter the eye and cause catastrophic injury in as little as 24 hours. It’s possible that you’ll go blind as a result.

Penetrating or foreign objects in the eye. If a foreign object, such as a piece of metal or a fishhook, gets into your eye, go to the nearest emergency hospital or urgent care center right soon. If you try to remove the object yourself or if you massage your eye, you risk injuring your eye much more.

Caustic foreign substance in the eye (chemical burn). It can be frightening to be splashed or sprayed in the eye by something other than clean, harmless water. Some compounds sting or burn but are relatively safe over time, while others might cause serious injury. A splash of liquid in your eye is the most common cause of chemical exposure and burns. However, they can also be caused by rubbing your eyes and transferring a chemical from your hands to your eyes, or by being sprayed in the eyes with hair spray or other aerosols.

Eye swelling. When you get hit in the eye with anything fast, like a baseball, you can get eye swelling and puffy, bulging eyelids.

Subconjunctival hemorrhages (eye-bleeding). This eye damage generally appears to be more serious than it is. Blood leaks from one or more breaks in a blood artery that resides between the white of the eye (sclera) and its transparent coating in a subconjunctival hemorrhage (conjunctiva).

After an eye injury, traumatic iritis causes inflammation of the colorful region of the eye (the iris) that surrounds the pupil. A poke in the eye or a strike to the eye from a blunt item, such as a ball or a fist, can produce traumatic iritis.

Orbital blowout fractures and hyphemas. A hyphema is bleeding in the anterior chamber of the eye, which is the region between the cornea and the iris. Cracks or breaks in the facial bones surrounding the eye are known as orbital blowout fractures.