An unusual mechanism of ocular trauma in badminton players: two incidental cases

Abstract

Badminton is a famous sport usually played without any protective eyewear. Ocular injury from one's own partner in a doubles game, with the shuttlecock, is rare. Two untrained badminton players presented with severe ocular trauma during a smash shot from the partner in a 'doubles' game. Both the players developed blind eye (vision <3/60) in spite of immediate treatment. This article describes an unusual mode of severe blunt trauma with a shuttlecock while playing a 'doubles' game, leading to coup-countercoup injury. In addition, the article highlights the need for awareness of the fatal ocular complications and life-long visual disability, especially in untrained badminton enthusiasts.

Knocked by the shuttlecock: twelve sight‐threatening blunt‐eye injuries in Australian badminton players

“…Badminton generally results in few ocular injuries but serious complications like retinal detachment, choroidal rupture, vitreous haemorrhage and lens subluxation can occur . Our case series findings are consistent with complications reported in the existing literature .…”

“…Badminton‐related ocular injuries are more common among inexperienced or amateur players, during doubles games, and occur most frequently due to a shuttlecock hit by an opponent (particularly from a smash stroke at the net) . Khandelwal, Majumdar and Gupta have also described a specific mechanism in a doubles game, where the players are hit as they turn around to look at their partner's smash shot, as described in case 3. Players should be particularly alert to this risk in competitive doubles games and be advised to avoid looking back at their partners.…”

“…Although badminton ocular injuries are uncommon, when they do occur, they can result in significant ocular morbidity . Fifty per cent suffer permanent decrease of vision and 11 per cent have a final visual acuity (VA) of 6/60 or worse, with macular changes, traumatic cataract and glaucoma being the main causes of visual impairment …”

Eye Injuries in Summer Olympic Sports - A Mini Review

“…From what concerns London Olympic Games, there were no reports about eye injuries on the literature [6]. In terms of sports modalities, four articles were found considering swimming, gymnastics and cycling, denominated low risk sports [2,[8][9][10][11]. Twenty three articles mentioned injuries related to high risk sports as floorball (hockey), badminton, handball, basketball, golf, rugby, volleyball, water polo and soccer [2,5,6,.…”

“…The emphasis on needs of using mandated protective eyewear (MPE) is due to the fact that in several studies the predominance of the injuries was in the group without proper protection [3,10,11,13,15] . Ultimately, demonstrated that the use of correct eye protection could reduce or even eliminate unnecessary traumas that are easily preventable [2,5,7,[12][13][14][15]19,22,24,29].…”