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If you were to do a Google news search for sports-related eye injuries today, chances are you'd find multiple recent stories about some pretty scary eye injuries. Whether they are professionals, high school or college athletes, or kids in community sports programs, no one is immune to the increased danger sports brings to the eyes.
Here are some facts about sports-related eye injuries:
- Eye injuries are the leading cause of blindness in children in the United States and most injuries occurring in school-aged children are sports-related.
- One-third of the victims of sports-related eye injuries are children.
- Every 13 minutes, an emergency room in the United States treats a sports-related eye injury.
- These injuries account for an estimated 100,000 physician visits per year at a cost of more than $175 million.
- Ninety percent of sports-related eye injuries could be avoided with the use of protective eyewear.
Protective eyewear includes safety glasses and goggles, safety shields, and eye guards designed for individual sports.
Protective eyewear lenses are made of polycarbonate or Trivex.
Ordinary prescription glasses, contact lenses, and sunglasses do not protect against eye injuries. Safety goggles should be worn over them.
The highest risk sports are:
- Paintball
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Racquet Sports
- Boxing and Martial Arts
The most common injuries associated with sports are:
- Abrasions and contusions
- Detached retinas
- Corneal lacerations and abrasions
- Cataracts
- Hemorrhages
- Eye loss
Choroidal nevus is the fancy term for a freckle in the back of the eye.
This lesion arises from a collection of cells that make pigment in the choroid, which lines the back of the retina and supplies the retina with nutrients. These choroidal nevi (plural of nevus) are usually grayish in color and develop in about 5-10% of the adult population. They are usually asymptomatic and detected during a routine dilated eye exam.
Just like any freckle on our body, we should monitor it for any change in size or growth. This is usually done with a photograph of the nevus and annual exams are normally recommended to monitor any change.
In addition to a photograph, other tests that can be used to monitor the nevus are:
- Optical coherence tomography - a test that uses light waves to take cross-section pictures of the retina. This test is used to detect if the nevus is elevated or if fluid is present underneath the retina.
- Ultrasound - uses sound waves to measure the size and elevation of the nevus.
- Fluorescein angiography - a dye test to detect abnormal blood flow through the nevus.
The concern is for transformation of the choroidal nevus into melanoma, a cancer in the eye. It has been estimated that 6% of the population have choroidal nevus and 1 in 8,000 of these nevi transform into melanoma. Some factors predictive of possible transformation in melanoma are:
- Thickness of the lesion, greater than 2 mm.
- Subretinal fluid, observed
