Eye injuries from party foam, silly string and artificial snow

Image: www.jakegarn.com

Eye injuries are the most common cause of blindness in kids.  And the most common cause of eye injuries is sports.  But a new study published in the June 2013 issue of the journal Cornea puts the spotlight on chemical eye injuries resulting from contact with "silly string," "party foam," or fake snow.

The study looked all patients who came to two particular hospitals with eye injuries over a two year period.  Around 100 patients had come with injuries related to party foam.

All patients suffered from chemical conjunctivitis (100%).  Chemical conjunctivitis is also kown as chemical pink eye or "toxic pinkeye".  It can also be caused by getting smoke, liquids, fumes, or chemicals in the eye. Chemical conjunctivitis can look like this:

Image: Wikipedia

79% of patients had superficial punctate keratopathy, which involves the death of small groups of cells on the surface of the cornea (the clear layer in front of the iris and pupil). Symptoms of superficial punctate keratopathy include the following redness, watering, and sensitive to light and decreased vision.

The study authors observed that 85 patients were seen in 2007 compared wit only 11 in 2008. The authors claim that the reduction was directly attributable to increased public awareness because of media coverage (newspapers, radio, and national TV) on the dangers posed by silly string.

Chemical eye injuries of the kind caused by silly string are usually easily treated in the optometrist's office.

We hope that this blog post will increase awareness and therefore contribute towards the prevention of this eye injury.

Source:

Cornea
Party Foam-Induced Eye Injuries and the Power of Media InterventionCornea 2013 Jun 01;32(6)826-829, A Abulafia, F Segev, E Platner, B Simon

Silly string image: Jake Garn, www.jakegarn.com, used with permision.

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Evil bunny sippy-cup attacks babies' eyes - reminds us that eye injuries are the leading cause of blindness in kids

This evil-looking sippy cup lives up to its sinister appearance.  Imported by Target, this little menace has attacked the eyes of six babies, causing cuts and bruises to three of them.  Luckily, are no reports of any babies going blind. Apparently, the bent ear of the vicious rabbit poked the kids in the eye.

The incident reminds us that eye injuries are the leading cause of blindness in children.  Most of these injuries happen while playing sports.

Eye injuries are the leading cause of blindness in kids

Eye injuries are the leading cause of blindness in kids and most eye injuries among kids 11 to 14 occur while playing sports. While hockey is definitely a leading cause of eye injuries, other sports which are commonly thought of as safer and not as rough as hockey are also leading causes of eye injuries in children. Chief among these are baseball and basketball.

Baseball is a leading cause of eye injuries in children 14 and under. Research from the United Sates shows that Basketball is the leading cause of eye injuries among 15 to 24 year-olds.

The sports with the highest rates of eye injuries are baseball/softball, ice hockey, racquet sports, basketball, fencing, lacrosse, paintball and boxing .

Boys are more at risk than girls

Parents have to keep a closer eye on their boys than their girls. Boys 11-15 are five times more likely to end up in the emergency room with an eye injury than girls of the same age. Most of these injuries are sports related and related to projectiles including toys, guns, darts, sticks, stones and air guns.

What can I do to prevent the risk of eye injuries?

The first thing you can do is wear protective eye wear. The proper eye wear, made of the right materials, can prevent 90% of eye injuries. Some athletes will even play better with protective eye wear because they are less afraid of getting injured.  Polycarbonate lenses are the best for impact resistance and when they are inserted into a sports eye-wear frame your child is well protected.  Learn more about protective eye wear for children.

One of the most important things you can do is to see your optometrist for a comprehensive eye health examination. This examination can reveal pre-existing conditions that can put a child (or any athlete- even an adult) at higher risk of blindness or vision loss in the event of an impact to the eye. When you know of the risk, you can take effective precautions to mitigate it and keep your kid's eyes healthy.

Read more about the sinister sippy cup here.

Never draft a baseball player with blue eyes?

Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers blames his difficulties on the field on his blue eyes. Sounds crazy right? Not really.

Having blue eyes can make it more difficult for a baseball player to see during day games compared to players with darker eyes. Blue eyes have less pigment in them than darker eyes resulting in excessive light entering the eye which scatters to cause unwanted glare. Optometrists know the phenomenon as "intraocular light scatter".

Apparently Hamilton is struggling to find a sunglasses that he is comfortable with. He should find something made of polycarbonate (for impact resistance), with no-glare coating and with polarization. Polarized sunglasses allow light waves traveling in only one direction to enter the eyes, eliminating the natural, scattered way that light travels and making vision sharper and clearer.

Also, given the high rate of baseball eye injuries, why not use baseball-specific saftey glasses?

Watch this video from ESPN where the announcer talks about Buck Showalters's advice never to draft a blue eyed player because they can't see as well. Fortunately for these players, there is eyewear for the problem.

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Kids' blindness: the leading cause is ...

I did some research on kids and blindness over the weekend and came up with some important information, which is especially relevant now as the warm weather brings kids outside to play sports.

Eye injuries are the leading cause of blindness in kids

Eye injuries are the leading cause of blindness in kids and most eye injuries among kids 11 to 14 occur while playing sports. While hockey is definitely a leading cause of eye injuries, other sports which are commonly thought of as safer and not as rough as hockey are also leading causes of eye injuries in children. Chief among these are baseball and basketball.

Baseball is a leading cause of eye injuries in children 14 and under. Research from the United Sates shows that Basketball is the leading cause of eye injuries among 15 to 24 year-olds.

The sports with the highest rates of eye injuries are baseball/softball, ice hockey, racquet sports, basketball, fencing, lacrosse, paintball and boxing .

Boys are more at risk than girls

Parents have to keep a closer eye on their boys than their girls. Boys 11-15 are five times more likely to end up in the emergency room with an eye injury than girls of the same age. Most of these injuries are sports related and related to projectiles including toys, guns, darts, sticks, stones and air guns.

What can you do to prevent the risk of eye injuries?

The first thing you can do is wear protective eye wear. The proper eye wear, made of the right materials, can prevent 90% of eye injuries. Some athletes will even play better with protective eye wear because they are less afraid of getting injured. I'll have more on protective eye wear in a subsequent post.

The most important thing you can do is to see your optometrist for a comprehensive eye health examination. This examination can reveal pre-existing conditions that can put a child (or any athlete, even an adult) at higher risk of blindness or vision loss in the event of an impact to the eye. When you know of the risk, you can take effective precautions to mitigate it and keep your eyes healthy.

As a reminder of how devastating and scary an eye injury can be, and how easy it is to prevent, read the post on Vancouver Canuck Manny Malholtra's eye injury. As I said in that earlier post, I believe that Manny Malholtra suffered a detached retina. An eye exam can determine if you are at higher risk of a detached retina. I'm not sure if Manny Malholtra had those risk factors, but if he did, he should have been wearing a visor.

Sources:

Harrison, A., & Telander, D.G. (2002). Eye Injuries in the youth athlete: a case-based approach. Sports Medicine, 31(1), 33-40. 2U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. (2000). Sports and recreational eye injuries. Washington, DC: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness, American Academy of Ophthalmology, Eye Health and Public Information Task Force. (2004). Protective eyewear for young athletes. Ophthalmology, 111(3), 600-603.

Ducharme, J.F., & Tsiaras, W.G. (2000). Sports-related ocular injuries. Medicine & Health Rhode Island, 83(2), 45-51.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 2000.

American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness; American Academy of Ophthalmology, Eye Health and Public Information Task Force, 2004

Joint Policy Statement of American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness; American Academy of Ophthalmology, Eye Health and Public Information Task Force. (2004). Protective eyewear for young athletes. Ophthalmology, 111(3), 600-603.

NHL should require visors after Manny Malholtra's eye injury

At least one optometrist is telling National Hockey League players to wear visors.  She happens to be engaged to one of them. Andrew Ladd's fiancee has tried unsuccessfully to convince Ladd to wear a visor while playing for the Atlanta Thrashers, reports the Candian Press.  Visors are already required in international hockey rules.

Ladd is rethinking his stance on a visor after the horriffic injury to Canuck, Manny Malholtra, "Just seeing what happened to Manny Malhotra and those types of injuries, it's scary," Ladd told the Canadian Press. "It can end pretty quickly if you take one in the eye."  This is what happened to Malholtra:



An injury like this can lead to permanent blindness.  Under NHL rules, no player with one blind eye can play.  However, I don't think a rule is even necessary.  A player with one blind eye will probably not have the peripheral vision and necessary depth perception required to succeed at the NHL level.

The Canucks have not disclosed exactly what kind of eye injury Malhotra suffered, but there are a few possibilities.  Dr. Harbir Sian has a list of the possible injuries here, which include detached retina, corneal abrasion, cataract, glaucoma and fractured orbital bone.  In my opinion, the most likely injury is the dreaded retinal detachment.