CHEMICAL EYE INJURY

You might be using acids and alkalis at home in the form of oven, drain and lavatory cleaning liquids or bleaches or pool cleaning liquids. It is a common place phenomenon that any of these can enter your eye and cause immediate damage to the vital structures of the eye leading you into blindness. The key point to avoid severe damage to your eye is copious washing. No matter its acid or base irrigation/ washing your eye with almost 2 to 3 liters of tap water or filtered water is the key. Water will neutralize the pH of the offending substance and weaken the damage while you are on the way to the hospital. The contact time should be minimized to the shortest level in order to reduce the damage to the minimal level.

Symptoms:

The symptoms depend on the splash of the particular substance, common symptoms include

· Burning

· Stinging pain

· Watering

· Blurring of vision

· Swelling of eye lids

Signs:

· Signs of chemical injury includes

· Hazy or cloudy cornea

· Limbal ischemia or blanching

· Conjunctival ischemia/ redness

· Raised intraocular pressure

First Aid Treatment:

Lean your head under the flowing tap water or seek help of some one pouring water constantly. Try to open both eye lids with fingers for vigorous washing of upper and lower conjunctiva and fornices. Continue the process for around 20 minutes.

Seek immediate medical advice. Do not delay the visit depending on the severity of pain or blurry vision. The damage can be silent and can have long term blinding effects.

Severity Scoring:

The severity scoring of chemical injury and its prognosis can be classified according to Roper Hall and Dua classification.

Complications:

· Corneal thinning or perforation

· Raised intraocular pressure

· Corneal ulcers

· Loss of eye

Treatment:

Treatment options depend on the severity of the damage starting from mild to aggressive treatment regime. The following medications are commonly used.

· Topical antibiotics, lubricants, cycloplegic, steroids and ascorbic acid.

· Oral pain killers, pressure lowing drugs and vitamin C.