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Unusual association of diseases/symptoms
CASE REPORT
Driver’s side curtain air bag-related globe rupture
  1. Ashley J Porter1,2,
  2. Rylan Hayes1,2,
  3. Lawrence Lee2,3,
  4. Stephen O’Hagan1,4
  1. 1 Ophthalmology Department, Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
  2. 2 School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia
  3. 3 City Eye Centre, Spring Hill, Queensland, Australia
  4. 4 Cairns Eye and Laser Centre, Edge Hill, Queensland, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Ashley J Porter, Ashley.porter{at}uon.edu.au

Summary

A 35-year-old man presented after a high-speed motor vehicle accident and the driver’s side curtain air bag causing blunt force trauma rupturing his right globe. The tangential force of the air bag resulted in an unusual arcuate horseshoe-shaped rupture through the lateral rectus insertion, causing avulsion of the muscle and tearing the sclera, with the apices of the tear extending anteriorly towards the limbus. Repair of the globe rupture was undertaken, and secondary vitrectomy revealed that the scleral tear had not involved the retina abutting the ora serrata. Silicone oil tamponade was used to fill the globe and the postoperative best corrected vision was 6/9. This is the first reported case of a ruptured globe caused by a side curtain air bag, resulting in a uniquely shaped arcuate scleral wound combined with lateral rectus avulsion, not associated with rhegmatogenous retinal damage, and is the first air bag-related globe rupture with scleral involvement to report a final best-corrected visual acuity better than 6/60.

  • trauma
  • ophthalmology

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2017-224152

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors meet the conditions of authorship as outlined by the ICMJE recommendations. AJP: contributed to the acquisition and analysis of data, drafting and revising the manuscript, final approval and accountability for the manuscript. RH: contributed to the concept and design, drafting and revising the manuscript, final approval and accountability for the manuscript. LL: contributed to the concept and design, drafting and revising the manuscript, final approval and accountability for the manuscript. SO’H: contributed to the concept and design, drafting and revising the manuscript, final approval and accountability for the manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.