It’s been made very clear what cranial and neurological calamities can result when seat belts aren’t buckled – paralysis, spinal cord injury, brain damage – but did you know there’s also a possibility of going blind?
Air bags, which deploy as the result of a controlled chemical reaction of nitrogen, potassium nitrate and silicon dioxide, can cause eye injury to unbuckled passengers, according to doctors at Rhode Island Hospital.
“The air bag can strike people right in the face, nose and in the eye sockets,” said Dr. Kent Anderson, an ophthalmologist. “It can cause pretty blinding injuries.”
Anderson and his colleagues recently conducted a study on the subject; they followed 47 patients who had been in serious car accidents. Those who did not wear seat belts – roughly 50 percent – were much more likely to have an eye injury when an air bag deployed, he said. Overall, 71 percent of those studied suffered severe, albeit temporary, eye injuries.
The doctors were to discuss their findings last Friday at the Ninth Annual Research Forum for Ophthalmologists, to be held at the Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington.
Each year, the workshop highlights new, innovative trends in the ophthalmology world.
This year’s featured speaker was Dr. Anthony Adamis, of Eyetech Pharmaceuticals in New York.
About five patients a week in Rhode Island suffer preventable blinding eye injuries, Anderson said. A significant portion of those are from car or motorcycle accidents, he said.
Most of the time, eye impairments from such accidents result because of an impact with the air bag, Anderson said. Resulting injuries can be severe, but aren’t generally permanent. “It’s a blunt-force trauma coming up to the face,” he said.
The particular injuries that can follow: a severe contusion to one or both eyes or “hyphema,” a hemorrhage within the eye socket. The latter can temporarily block vision and take several months to clear up, Anderson said.
In more severe cases, the eye can split open, a cataract can form, or the lens within the eye can become dislocated, he said. Any of those injuries could require surgical correction or surgical drainage, and patients would most likely be in a rehabilitation setting for three or four months. During that time, they’d probably be partially or fully blind, he said.
Similar eye injuries can also come as side effects of skull fractures, Anderson said; when bones shift or break, they can puncture the eye area.
“Your eye sits in a bony box,” he explained. “If you have any fractures around the eye itself, it can protrude into the eye.”
In some cases, vision can even be lost completely, he said, and in some cases, one or both eyes must be completely removed. “Losing both eyes at once can be really disabling.”
Those who don’t follow safety precautions on motorcycles can suffer similar ocular injuries.
Rhode Island Hospital doctors did a recent study of 31 patients who had been in motorcycle accidents. Twenty-three of those were found to have eye injuries, Anderson said, and four were legally blind in one eye.
“If you take a hit to the head on a motorcycle, it’s a pretty difficult situation,” he said.
Because Rhode Island does not have a motorcycle helmet law, it’s very likely that riders who don’t wear helmets will be severely injured if they get into an accident, he said.
Wearing a helmet – the hard plastic kind that fully covers the eyes and face – is an effective way to reduce the chances of severe eye injury and skull fracture, he said.
As for air bags, the solution isn’t to get rid of them, Anderson said, but to buckle up.
“We certainly recommend air bags,” he said, “but we also want to prevent the loss of an eye.”
