A flying water-bottle cap caused a serious injury to the right eye of a 14-year-old girl.
Teenagers have taken to twisting empty plastic water bottles until the pressure inside shoots the loose cap into the air, and it can hit the eye.
The girl could see only hand movements, and the pressure inside her eye was 13 mmHg. Blood filled 70% of the front chamber of the eye (hyphaema), and her vision improved slowly as the blood cleared.
On the fourth day she had severe eye pain and worse vision: the clot in the front chamber had shrunk, but eye pressure had risen to 42 mmHg, so she was given glaucoma treatment. On the ninth day the pressure rose to 48 mmHg, with severe pain and nausea, and she could again see only hand movements. Surgery was needed to wash out the front chamber, which lowered the pressure; it had been caused by red blood cells, fibrin and inflammatory cells blocking the eye's drainage channels.
A day after surgery her vision improved to 20/40 and eye pressure was 15 mmHg with timolol drops. Her vision is now 20/20, with an eye pressure of 18 mmHg without glaucoma medicines.
Complications of such injuries include glaucoma and cataracts. These injuries are spreading among teenagers and younger schoolchildren, so warn them of the danger, and advise them to wear protective glasses if they insist on such games. The case was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in May 2008.
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