Airbags and bilateral eye injury: Five case reports and a review of the literature

Ocular injury related with airbag deployment: A case report

“…Airbag deployments may cause eye injuries. Although the injuries are usually monocular and involve the driver, they can be binocular and occur in passengers and at varying speeds of impact (Zador and Ciccone, 1993;Lee et al, 2001). There was an eye injury related with airbag deployment in our patient who was a car driver.…”

“…Mechanical injury occurs as a direct result of the tremendous force and velocity with which airbags contact the eyes and surrounding tissues. The force of the airbag is transmitted to the eye in an anterior-posterior direction with subsequent deformation of the fixed anatomic structures resulting in many anterior segment injuries (Lee et al, 2001). In our patient, a redness in the right eye and swelling in lower-right eyelid were occured due to mechanical effect of airbag.…”

“…Eyelid trauma, corneal injury, and hyphema are most common injuries (Lee et al, 2001). Periorbital fractures, lens dislocation, corneoscleral laceration, retinal detachments, vitreous and retinal hemorrhages, choroidal rupture, and macular holes also have been described (O'Neill, 1992;Zador and Ciccone, 1993;Lee et al, 2001). On the admission, our patient had a patchy lesion in the right half of face and minimal redness in the right eye and periorbital area, there was a tenderness on the right zygomatic arch with palpation.…”

“…If the venting system does not function adequately, the heat and alkaline chemicals produced during the reaction can burn holes in the airbag, resulting in exposure of the eyes to alkaline substances, some of which crystallize and deposit in the fornices. Spectacles may provide an element of protection against chemical injury by acting as a barrier between the alkaline chemicals and the eyes ( Zador and Ciccone, 1993;Lee et al, 2001). In our case, the lesion on the face and eye may be related to chemical injury after airbag deployment.…”

“…Although airbags have been shown to decrease the incidence of severe morbidity and mortality related to motor vehicle crashes, the current literature demonstrates that they can cause serious eye injuries. Published injuries include eyelid lacerations, periorbital fractures, corneal abrasions, hyphemas, lens dislocations, angle recessions, corneoscleral lacerations, alkaline corneal burns, cyclodialysis, retinal detachments, retinal and vitreous hemorrhages, and traumatic macular holes (Lee et al, 2001). We discuss a case who had a burn injury on his face and eye after motor vehicle accident resulting airbag deployment.…”