An unusual case of a serious blunt injury of the eye

Abstract

Introduction. Optic nerve avulsion is a serious injury of the eye. The objective of the paper was to present the peculiarity of the eye injury caused by a penetrating orbital wound with foreign body being retained in the orbit. Case report. A 15-year-old boy who sustained injury by chain link is presented. While he was turning the chain round in his hand, the last link broke off, piercing the lower lid, penetrated the left orbital cavity and remained behind the eyeball at the top of orbit. While passing towards the top of the orbit, the foreign body caused a blunt injury of the eyeball and avulsion of the ocular nerve. The accurate localization of the foreign body was verified by X-ray and CT imaging. The foreign body was removed through the entry wound. The eye injury resulted in amaurosis. Conclusion. This injury was one of those that could have been prevented.

Keywords

• orbital injury
• intraorbital foreign body
• optic nerve avulsion