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Blood in the eye - causes, symptoms and therapy
Blood in the eye, which appears as a circumscribed subcutaneous congestion, is called hyposphagma. This results in a flat, mostly dark red bleeding under the conjunctiva, which may sometimes appear very dramatic optically. In most cases, however, the bleeding is harmless and has no consequences. If the hyposphagma occurs repeatedly, specialist advice should be consulted.
contents
- definition
- External injuries
- A blue eye that catches the eye?
- Eye injuries during sport
- Internal pressure and illness
- Therapy for bloody eye
- Possible diseases with blood in the eye
- How dangerous are broken wires?
definition
Our eyeball is usually white, traversed by red veins, but easily recognizable as such. When the white turns red, it is usually due to blood. In turn, bleeding in the eye can have a variety of causes - from open wounds to bruising and burst veins. The cause of the injury is, of course, first of all possible, but the bleeding in the eye can also occur suddenly after a severe cough (for example in whooping cough) or during labor. Rarely, the hyposphagma may also be a symptom of hypertension, atherosclerosis, and diabetes mellitus, or may be a sign of a blood clotting disorder.
Blood in the eye can have different causes. Sometimes a serious illness like diabetes is behind it. Image: vchalup - fotolia Eye is not the same as eye, and blood is not the same as blood. The eye is a very complex organ, and numerous blood vessels go through it. Bleeding occurs in the following parts of the oculus: dermis, conjunctiva, cornea, iris, or vitreous. In addition, the blood in the eye may also originate from an injury outside the eye: a cut on the skin of the eyelid, for example, is not a wound in the eye. Nevertheless, blood can collect on the outside of the eye and looks similar to blood, which turns the white red in the eye.
As a rule, the eyelid bleeds spontaneously, painlessly and without further discomfort. Therapeutic measures are usually not required, the bleeding disappears after two weeks at the latest. However, in case of recurrence, those affected should be examined for the possible underlying diseases, which are then the focus of the therapy. Diagnostic delineation is the extensive ocular bleeding from the redness of the eye, which underlies other causes.
External injuries
These are the most common causes of blood in the eye. Our organ of vision reacts sensitively to external pressure. A blow to the eye, or foreign bodies such as the edges of contact lenses trigger bleeding. These are often bruising, sometimes burst but also veins, or cuts damage our eye.
Generally we distinguish injuries with blunt objects, for example tennis or footballs, the steering wheel of a car or the curb, which exert pressure and lead to bruises, bruises and burst veins of sharp objects, which cause wounds like cuts with knives, glass splinters or thorns.
A blue eye that catches the eye?
We literally say "somebody came away with a black eye". A blue eye is a bruise, especially in the region around the eye - in the eyelid area. The tissue around the eye swells and the bleeding turns it bluish-red-purple. That's why we call a blue eye a violet.
Blue eye can lead to a red eye. Image: valiza14 - fotolia "It came with a black eye" means: Something was close, but good, but could have ended badly, if it had "cogged". This refers to the function of the eyelid. This tissue serves to protect our extremely sensitive eye. When we are in a cloud of dust or smoke, we close our eyes and the lid looks like a shield.
The lid also protects against sunlight and against foreign bodies. We can "blink away" smaller intruders such as dirt particles. We move our eyelids, and the fluid, along with the lid, acts like a wet swab that wipes the dirt out.
A blue eye is caused by external pressure, impacts, falls or a collision. "Get away with a black eye" can also be transferred metaphorically, but refers directly to fights. Anyone who gets a blow to the eye and "only" has a blue eye is not lying in the hospital with a broken jaw.
"Get away with a black eye" criticized at the same time the carelessness, to go in situations that "can go in the eye". When something "catches our eye", we suffer serious damage - both physically and symbolically. In the worst case scenario, we permanently lose our vision, with a milder outcome for a short time.
Self-defense trainers and street thugs know how sensitive our eyes are. A targeted hit with the edge of the hand on the eyeball is enough to make an opponent incapacitated. Even substances like tear gas, pepper spray or chilli put us out of action at short notice.
A blue eye may well be accompanied by a bruise in the eye, more rarely with a cut injury. Both hematomas in the eyelid area and in the eyeball can form. Then not only the tissue swells around the eye, but also the whites in the eye turns red.
Eye injuries during sport
Sport is not murder, but an important cause of injury in and on the eye. Every hundredth eye injury is caused by sports. More than half of these are bruises, then foreign body injuries, followed by infections and irritation, UV rays and chemical agents, external agents, and finally cuts and stings.
Especially athletes, least of all health athletes, are affected. Most sports injuries occur during sports with objects: football, handball, hockey, ice hockey, golf or tennis. Small balls are "offenders number 1". This is not because they have "eye size" but reach a high speed and hit the eye from close up. In short, tennis players have a far greater risk of injuring their eyes than volleyball fans.
Most unknown are indirect eye injuries during sports. Jumping, long, high and pole vaulting increase the frequency of the oscillations in the eye muscles. This can lead to bleeding and injure the retina. Even jogging severely strains the muscles.
Small balls usually hit the connective, horn or iris, the ray body or the lens. Foot, hand or volleyballs, however, particularly damage the retina, choroid and optic nerve. Here, the rebound and rebound of the ball leads to a negative pressure between the lens and the rear portion of the eye.
Like bullets, golf balls at more than 300 km / h, squash and tennis balls at more than 250 km / h, and badminton balls at more than 200 km / h. Nearly ten percent of eye injuries in these sports lead to blindness.
The politics is deceptive. Football leads in Germany in the ball sports with the highest rate of eye injuries. But that's because it's the most common ball sport. If it is not about the absolute numbers, but about the proportional amount of eye injuries, then squash is clearly ahead as eye risk, followed by ice hockey. In squash, 50% of all injuries hit the head, and 25% of the eye.
For these sports, eye protection should be just as mandatory as the mask during boxing. Many blindness from ice hockey or squash players would be preventable with a face shield. A protection would prevent eye injuries to almost 100%.
Basket and volleyball players especially risk injuries to the eyelid, as well as professional boxers. Boxing professionals regularly suffer from injuries to the angle of the ventricle, the lens and the retina.
Divers are struggling with internal bleeding of the eye. The emergence and emergence creates a high pressure in the eye and disturbs the blood circulation, in addition to come on too long dives nitrogen bubbles. Bleeding occurs on vessels, retina and choroid and is still one of the "harmless" damage, because the nitrogen bubbles can also take the eyesight. Long-time divers also suffer, according to reliable studies, to 50% damage to the retina.
It is largely unknown that exercises that are intended to serve health, such as certain yoga techniques and gymnastics, can massively affect the eye. In head and handstand, the so-called candle, up and swing on the horizontal bar and gymnastics on the bar penetrates blood in the head and presses it on the eye. Because our neck veins do not have any valves, and when we stand on our heads, the blood flows freely.
Certain yoga exercises can lead to blood in the eye. Image: Photographee.eu - fotolia Even more underestimated than the blood rush at gymnastics are rides and extreme sports. Overhead rides are booming, with "Moonlift" or "Enterprise" providing a kick by turning passengers into cabins or just their seats until they are upside down. This not only guarantees thrills, but the blood rises in the head and flows back just as quickly when the seat is back in the normal position.
These rides compete with extreme sports like bungee jumping. In turn, bungee jumping puts you at high risk for retinal hemorrhage and blindness.
Internal pressure and illness
Pressure from the inside triggers bleeding in the eye and can cause blood vessels to burst. The main cause is an increased blood pressure on the eye. When we sneeze or cough strongly, the internal pressure in the body increases - as well as when we lift hard. By pressure then tear vessels, from which occurs blood and flows into the eyes.
Also diseases trigger such internal bleeding, first of all conjunctivitis. If the eyes are irritated by such an infection, veins can become porous, tear and burst. Diabetes mellitus can also lead to eye bleeding indirectly, because too much sugar accumulates in the vessels.
Blood thinners and anticoagulants sometimes lead to spontaneous bleeding. In the eye, this hardly shows as open bleeding, but usually as a hematoma.
Therapy for bloody eye
Even laymen recognize burst arteries and bruises in the eye; Doctors usually see if objects trigger the injury. Mostly those affected know this themselves - whether it was a pebble whirling in their eyes, whether they poked a pencil in the iris.
The situation is different with internal pressure, pre-existing conditions and injuries to the posterior segment of the eye. Blood tests and blood pressure measurements are often needed here.
The treatment is associated with the cause. In case of swelling or bruising, the wound should be cooled, as this narrows the blood vessels, and thus less blood escapes.
Conjunctivitis, high blood pressure and diabetes mellitus, on the other hand, can be controlled with medication. However, if the drugs themselves are the cause, such as anticoagulants, then it is necessary to change the drug.
It is not joking with eyelids, after all, blindness can end up. In addition, blood in the eye sometimes indicates a serious illness such as diabetes mellitus. If high blood pressure is the cause, then this is occasionally a symptom of serious diseases, especially in the heart. A doctor should therefore examine the injury in any case, regardless of whether cut, stitch or bruise.
Possible diseases with blood in the eye
The doctor recognizes a basic illness with certain characteristics.
1) Bursting veins without effort or external impact?
2) burst veins more often?
3) Add nosebleed to the blood in the eye?
4) If those affected are dizzy, they feel "like a flu"?
Then the blood in the eye indicates a disease, for example atherosclerosis, hypertension, coagulation disorder or diabetes.
How dangerous are broken wires?
Bursted veins in the eye without serious illness in the background are harmless - medically considered it concerns small vessel injuries. If it has been clarified that there are no other symptoms, such injuries heal quickly by themselves. (Dr. Utz Anhalt, Dipl.Päd. J.Viñals Stein, updated on 25.09.2016)
Specialist supervision: Barbara Schindewolf-Lensch (doctor)