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Show Your Doctor Says... The following is one of a series of articles written by members of the Utah State Medical Association and published in cooperation with your local newspaper. These articles are scheduled to appear erery other week throughout the year in an effort to better acquaint you with problems of healthy and designed to improve the well-being of the people of Utah. Accidents to Eyes Aecldents take heavy toll in eye-: eye-: sight each year. At least ninety ; per cent of these accidents are preventable. pre-ventable. Were we, aa adults, to cooperate in eliminating from the the playthings of children such agents as airguns, flippers, darts, slingshots, bow and arrow, pointed scissors, pocket knives with pointed blades, and other similar instruments, instrum-ents, we should automatically prevent pre-vent a large percentage of accidents acci-dents destroying vision. The popgun, pop-gun, even though its missile is on a string and sharply limited in range, is responsible for a fair number of injuries that cause hemorrhage hem-orrhage into the eye and often result re-sult in marked loss of vision. Blunt hurts of the eye are of serious importance, especially where they cause bleeding into it. If not cared for promptly by someone trained in eye diseases and who knows what should be done, they frequently cause serious loss of sight, if not the eye. Such injury, which does not produce hemorrhage, hemor-rhage, may later bring cataract. It may also cause iritis, a painful inflammation of the eye, or even separation (detachment) of the retina. Wounds of the eyelids are frequent, fre-quent, in these times of daily motor mo-tor car accidents. When the lids are cut or torn, failure to repair the wound properly may result in ' notching of the lid edges, lid-warp- ing scars, sagging of the lids, in-; in-; ability to close the eye, or leaking of tears over the face, j Injury to the front of the eye is often done by simple foreign bodies that get in between the lids. These may Tbe of such material as will scratch the transparent cornea and produce painful ulcers, or they may be Barbed spines, like that of the burdock, which becomes fastened in the lid and plow into the delicate surface every time the lid is opened or closed. The natural natur-al tendency we all have to rub an eye when anything gets into it adds fuel to the fire and make worse the harmful results, as well as increases the pain and distress. If we could be made to realize this and keep fingers away from an eye that gets something in it, we should Kelp much in lessening tissue tis-sue damagfe and in promoting prompt recovery. This precaution n, particularly important if one is so unfortunate as to get the hairs from a caterpillar Into the eye, because the rubbing will start these very slendei and brittle barbs into the tissues of the eyeball, causing a grave and stubborn inflammatory process for which there is as vet no adequate treatment. The most dangerous materials that get into the eye by accident are lye, lime, strong acids and indelible in-delible copying pencil lead. Fresh cement or concrete, because of its lime content, is also a seriously damaging agent. Greater care should be observed by workmen to avoid splashing plaster, mortar and other such preparations, thus preventing a common type of eye accidents. Burns of the eye with hot instruments, instru-ments, such as curling irons, are not as likely to leave serious scarring scar-ring damage to vision as are those from strong alkalies and acids. Burns due to lye and lime are especially es-pecially destructive and should have immediate care to prevent loss of the eye. Free and prompt irrigation with clear water is of greatest importance, and should, if possible, be given at the place where the accident occurs, for every second that passes before this is done means increased permanent damage to the eye. Following such first aid, the injured person should be taken at once to an eye M.D. for further evaluation and treatment. treat-ment. Burns from strong acids should have the same speedy attention. atten-tion. Penetrating wounds of the eye may occur from small foreign bodies, such as pieces of metal, stone, wood, etc., that may strike the eyeball with sufficient force to drive them through its coats. The worst of these accidents occur from giants caps exploding in the hand or nearby. The most common scource of them is the hammering of metal with metal. The use of improper tools for the job at hand, in this sort of work, has been responsible re-sponsible for many lost eyes. The: smallest particle of iron or steel left inside the eyeball will destroy it, unless removed. Most other metals do not do this, but any foreign for-eign body inside the eye should be removed, if reasonably possible. Wounds that lay open the coats of the eyeball may usually be repaired re-paired by the eye physician and surgeon, if done soon after they occur. Where the ciliary body of the eye is cut through, or the choroid and retina are severely damaged, to try to save the injured eye may involve the well one in the dreaded sympathetic inflammation, inflamma-tion, which will blind it also. Another all too common scource of injury to the eye is the use of wTong medicine in it, from the home medicine cabinet. Usually irreparable harm is not done, but not infrequently tincture of iodine, or some other heroic medication is dropped into the eye by mistake. In the first place, these drugs should not be had in dropper bottles. bot-tles. In the second place, the utmost ut-most caution should be observed as to being certain what is dropped into the eye. Voui M.D. always, looks at the bottle from 'which he takes a drop Tor your eye. even though he us" 'hp same one many times each rlr. v You too should, cultivate tht- ''it of cjution. j |