Symptoms of injuries of the eye with the introduction of foreign bodies
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
If a foreign body is suspected of entering a foreign body, anamnesis-data on trauma and the possible composition of a foreign body and even its localization are of great importance.
When the fragment passes through the sclera outside the visible part of the eye, the entrance to the cornea and sclera is not detected.
When the corneal wounds are large, the anterior chamber may not be present, hemorrhages in the anterior chamber are observed. If the fragment has penetrated the eye eccentrically, then biomicroscopy reveals a hole in the iris. With a central location of the wound, the opening in the iris can be absent, but then there is a trauma of the lens.
When a foreign body penetrates the lens, traumatic cataract is determined. The turbidity of the lens may be of different intensity: from complete to loss of crystalline masses into the anterior chamber, to the partial, posterior heliolar cataract. Hemorrhages in the vitreous of various intensities are more often observed when a foreign body traumatises a ciliary body or choroid. With the introduction of a foreign body of large dimensions, the gaping of the wound of the cornea and sclera with the loss of the vascular membrane and vitreous body is clinically determined.
In biomicroscopic examination, the foreign body is sometimes detected in the anterior chamber, lens or vitreous. In the event that you can conduct ophthalmoscopy (transparent lens), the foreign body can be seen in the vitreous or on the fundus. If the fragment is not visible, then the following clinical signs can help in its diagnosis:
- presence of a penetrating wound in the wall of the eye;
- detection of a wound rope in the cornea, iris and lens;
- discrepancy between the size of the wound and visual acuity; a significant decrease in vision with a minor wound of the eye;
- damage to the iris and lens, blood in the anterior chamber, vitreous hemorrhage;
- purulent exudate in the anterior chamber;
- air bubbles in the vitreous for the first 24 hours after injury;
- deep anterior chamber and hypotension;
- irit or iridocyclitis in patients whose profession allows one to assume the possibility of damage to the eye by a foreign body;
- unilateral mydriasis 3-6 weeks after injury;
- local or total endothelial-epithelial dystrophy of the cornea when the fragment is localized in the iris-corneal corner.
When deciding whether to remove a foreign body from the eye, it is necessary to have data on the duration of the fragment's stay in the eye, its nature, localization, magnitude, and accompanying complications.
If the metal fragments for any reason have not been removed from the eyes, they are gradually oxidized and toxic to the tissues of the eye, especially for the lens and retina, are formed. With long-term presence in the eye of iron-containing foreign bodies (from 1 month to 3 years), siderosis develops, copper-containing ones - chalcosis.
[