Wounds and Injuries—Eye Injuries

The structure of your face helps protect your eyes from injury. Still, injuries can damage your eye, sometimes severely enough that you could lose your vision. Most eye injuries are preventable. If you play sports or work in certain jobs, you may need protection.

The most common type of injury happens when something irritates the outer surface of your eye. Certain jobs such as industrial jobs or hobbies such as carpentry make this type of injury more likely. It’s also more likely if you wear contact lenses.

Chemicals or heat can burn your eyes. With chemicals, the pain may cause you to close your eyes. This traps the irritant next to the eye and may cause more damage. You should wash out your eye right away while you wait for medical help.

• Corneal injury (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Eye – foreign object in (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Eye emergencies (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Hyphema (Medical Encyclopedia)

Also called: Traumatic injuries

An injury is damage to your body. It is a general term that refers to harm caused by accidents, falls, hits, weapons, and more. In the U.S., millions of people injure themselves every year. These injuries range from minor to life-threatening. Injuries can happen at work or play, indoors or outdoors, driving a car, or walking across the street.

Wounds are injuries that break the skin or other body tissues. They include cuts, scrapes, scratches, and punctured skin. They often happen because of an accident, but surgery, sutures, and stitches also cause wounds. Minor wounds usually aren’t serious, but it is important to clean them. Serious and infected wounds may require first aid followed by a visit to your doctor. You should also seek attention if the wound is deep, you cannot close it yourself, you cannot stop the bleeding or get the dirt out, or it does not heal.

Other common types of injuries include

• Animal bites
• Bruises
• Burns
• Dislocations
• Electrical injuries
• Fractures
• Sprains and strains

• Bleeding (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Crush injury (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Cuts and puncture wounds (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Electrical injury (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Gunshot wounds — aftercare (Medical Encyclopedia)
• How wounds heal (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Laceration – sutures or staples – at home (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Lacerations – liquid bandage (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Surgical wound care (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Surgical wound infection – treatment (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Wet to dry dressing changes (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Wound care centers (Medical Encyclopedia)