REMEDY : BNSSG referral pathways & Joint Formulary


Home > Adults > Ophthalmology >

Open Eye Injury

Checked: 23-08-2020 by Vicky Ryan Next Review: 23-08-2021

Overview

If there has been an injury to the eye there may be an open injury into the eye ball. This can be suggested from:

  • A high velocity injury/or projectile hitting the eye
  • A soft looking eye
  • The iris being pressed against the inside of the cornea
  • Appearance of jelly (vitreous) leaking from the eye
  • Internal eye tissues are invariably black when they extrude through the wall of the globe
  • A sudden onset of floaters or blurred vision following trauma
  • The iris being pulled up to touch the cornea in a certain point
  • The eye not moving in certain directions
  • Evidence of leak through the cornea when fluorescein is applied.

Who to refer

If there is any suspicion of an open globe injury then instruct the patient not to touch their eye, attempt to use an eye shield or ‘cartella’ to cover the eye without compressing the eyeball and immediately call the on-call ophthalmologist

Red Flag

As above

Referral

Refer urgently to BEH on-call opthalmologist.

Resources

These guidelines have been written by Rhys Harrison, consultant ophthalmologist at Bristol Eye Hospital, with thanks to the patients who have kindly given consent to use their photos.

For full ophthalmology guidelines see: Primary Care Ophthalmology Guidance Document



Efforts are made to ensure the accuracy and agreement of these guidelines, including any content uploaded, referred to or linked to from the system. However, BNSSG ICB cannot guarantee this. This guidance does not override the individual responsibility of healthcare professionals to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual patient, in consultation with the patient and/or guardian or carer, in accordance with the mental capacity act, and informed by the summary of product characteristics of any drugs they are considering. Practitioners are required to perform their duties in accordance with the law and their regulators and nothing in this guidance should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with compliance with those duties.

Information provided through Remedy is continually updated so please be aware any printed copies may quickly become out of date.