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| Arc eye Classification and external resources |
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| ICD-10 | H16.1 |
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| ICD-9 | 370.24 |
Arc eye, also known as welder's flash, bake eyes, corneal flash burns, or flash burns, is a painful ocular condition sometimes experienced by welders who have failed to use adequate eye protection. It is also referred to as arc flash, though this can also refer to an electrical explosion. It can also occur due to using tanning beds without proper eyewear, excessive sun exposure, light reflected from snow (known as snow blindness), water or sand. The intense ultraviolet light absorbed by the eye causes a superficial and painful keratitis.
Symptoms tend to occur a number of hours after exposure and typically resolve spontaneously within 36 hours. The sensation has been described as having sand poured into the eyes.
Although it is possible for defects in specific types of industrial lighting to cause the same problem, this phenomenon cannot be caused by simple over-illumination as commonly found in many factory and office environments.
Signs
- Intense lacrimation
- Blepharospasm
- Photophobia [1]
- Fluorescein dye staining will reveal corneal ulcers under blue light
- Constricted pupils note: this symptom may last as long as 96 to 128 hours in some cases.
Management
- Instill topical anaesthesia
- Inspect the cornea for any foreign body
- Patch the worse of the two eyes and prescribe analgesia
- Topical antibiotics in the form of eye drops or eye ointment or both should be prescribed for prophylaxis against infection
- Cold wet tea bags placed over the eyes offer some relief.
- Carefully avoiding direct eye contact, applying vaporub above the cheekbones causes pain to spike, then fade almost completely in seconds
External links
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 4 October 2008, at 23:30.
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