Ocular Trauma

A significant portion of the emergency operations of Dr. Uniat is focused on forms of ocular trauma. These operations are to deal with either a closed eye injury or an open eye injury.

Among the wide range of causes of the closed eye injuries are a "fist injury" resulting from a fight, being struck by a tree branch, contact with a bungee cord or being hit by a B-B pellet, a hockey stick or a puck.

The open eye injuries are the result of a foreign body entering or lacerating the eye. Common examples of these include being struck by a pencil or a flake of metal from hammering as well as a fishing hook damaging the eye while being cast.

The effects of these traumatic events, which call for emergency surgery, often include bleeding, a cataract, retinal detachment, glaucoma, infection or, even the loss of an eye.

The resulting vision depends partially on the portion of the eye that received the damage and the extent of the injury, which resolves whether or not it would be repairable.

As shown in the accompanying illustrations, some clinical examples that have been treated by surgery, include:

• an eye sustained a blow with a hockey stick, resulting in scarring through the macula (the centre of the retina) and significant loss of vision;


• a child suffered facial blunt trauma from an air bag injury;


• hemorrhaging in the eyelids and around the eyes are the result of the head smashing into a windshield in a motor vehicle accident; and


• metal wire penetrating the eye.