What to do if cornea is burned

Many people accidentally burn the inner membrane of their eyes because of their work. At this time, they will feel very uncomfortable, cry crazily, have a runny nose, and all their facial features are affected. In normal times, they need to be treated with reasonable medications, and wrap the eyes with gauze appropriately. Avoid exposure to light for a short period of time to avoid worsening of the condition.

First aid measures

After corneal trauma, the injured eye should be closed immediately to prevent the wound from contacting the outside world and reduce friction. Do not rub the eyes. Cover and bandage the affected eye with clean gauze. Do not press the eyeball hard when bandaging. Send the patient to the nearest hospital immediately.

Treatment

1) General treatment: Local anesthetics are prohibited for corneal abrasions to relieve pain, so as not to aggravate the infection. If there is foreign matter in the wound, it can be wiped off gently with a sterile wet cotton swab or removed with tweezers. If there are multiple small foreign bodies in the conjunctival sac at the same time, it can be rinsed with a small amount of sterile saline. Apply antibiotic eye ointment topically, such as erythromycin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol eye ointment, etc., apply gauze bandage, and change the dressing daily until the epithelium heals. When the epithelial defect is large, pressure bandage can be applied, which has the effects of braking, relieving pain and promoting epithelial repair. For patients with corneal stromal edema and opacity without corneal epithelial damage, topical glucocorticoids can be applied and mydriatics can be used if necessary. Recheck the epithelial recovery and signs of infection every 24 hours. Generally, corneal abrasions can heal in 1 to 2 days, deep corneal tissue loss can heal in about 1 week, and interlayer corneal tears require 3 to 6 weeks. When infection is highly suspected, conjunctival sac secretions should be taken for bacterial culture, and broad-spectrum antibiotics, such as 40 mg of gentamicin, should be injected under the conjunctiva. At the same time, the keratitis should be treated according to the principles, without bandaging and local application of antibiotic eye drops. It should be noted that people with corneal epithelial damage are prohibited from using hormonal eye drops to prevent the spread of bacteria and affect epithelial healing.

2) Ciliary muscle paralytics: For severe corneal epithelial exfoliation, it is important to use ciliary muscle paralytics. Since the corneal epithelium can heal within 24 hours, ciliary muscle paralytics are mostly short-acting drugs, such as 1%~2% homatropine.

3) Wearing hydrophilic corneal contact lenses: For patients with larger epithelial defects, wearing corneal contact lenses can be considered. Wearing contact lenses can protect the healing corneal epithelium on the one hand, but on the other hand it can cause local temperature to rise, increase the risk of infection, and may slow down the healing process.

4) Surgical treatment: Corneal abrasions and minor corneal contusions generally do not require surgical treatment, but deep corneal tissue defects that do not heal for a long time, corneal interlayer tears, and corneal penetrating injuries and ruptures should be treated surgically.