Sports-Related Eye Injuries Can Be Serious
It is an unfortunate fact; eye injuries are very common in the world of sports. Depending on the sport and the age and skill level of the participants, eye injuries can range from mild to extreme. While wearing eye protection may not be possible for all sports activities, it is still important to protect your eyes in any way that you can.
Understanding some of the most common eye injuries sustained during participation in sports is a step in the right direction.
Direct Blunt Trauma to the Eye
Direct blunt trauma to the eye can occur in any one of a large number of ways. High school-aged baseball pitchers can throw a fastball in the neighborhood of seventy-five to eighty miles an hour. The current world speed record for a tennis serve is in excess of two hundred miles per hour.
Blunt trauma to the eye can happen from flying elbows in basketball, mountain and street bicycle crashes, and any one of thousands of other possible combinations of bad luck and circumstance. Thankfully, the eye is protected by the bone of the eye socket, as well as other tissues that surround the eye and absorb some of the impact of blunt trauma.
Corneal Abrasion
The cornea is the clear layer of tissue that covers and protects the eye. Corneal abrasion, simply put, is a scratch in the cornea. This condition is quite common and can have several sports-related causes, including flying dust, dirt, and debris, fingers or other appendages poking the eye, or wearing poor fitting contact lenses during sports activities.
Subconjunctival Hemorrhage
Subconjunctival hemorrhage occurs when a blood vessel breaks just under the surface of the eye itself. Because the tissue of the eye cannot absorb blood quickly, the blood from the tiny blood vessel is trapped under the cornea, turning the white of the eye blood red. It can be caused by any one of thousands of insults or injuries to the eye and is completely harmless. It can also be caused by excessive straining, a hard sneeze, or a strong cough.
Black Eye
Perhaps the most common eye related injury in sports is not to the eye itself but to the surrounding tissues. The term “black eye” refers to any discoloration of the tissues surrounding the eye due to bruising associated with trauma, not the eye itself. Black eyes can be caused by direct trauma to the eye, trauma to the nose, or any of the surrounding tissues of the face.
Eye Injuries Are Common in Sports
With everyone around you striving to be the best in competition, and the variability of playing field conditions, participation in sports can bring a certain amount of danger to the eyes along with it. And sports eye injuries can range from the relatively insignificant to the severe. Insure the safety of your eyes by using eye protection whenever possible, and consult a physician if you experience eye trauma.
[Photo Via: GotFishing]