Eye Popping Problems

Last week, we did an eyeball case. Let’s do more this week.

Exophthalmos is a condition where the eyeballs bulge out of the eye sockets abnormally.* It is frequently associated with hyperthyroidism.

One night, I saw a woman who had such severe exophthalmos that the eyelids caught behind one of her eyeballs. This caused the eye to protrude even farther. As a result, she was not able to close or move the eye. I had to gently press her eyeball back into its socket and work the eyelids back over the front of her eye.

*

This is an image from the Internet, not my patient.

The other eyeball patient was a one-hundred-year-old lady who fell out of bed in the middle of the night. She hit her face on something and ruptured her globe, which is the medical term for the eyeball. Her eye was so bulged out and had so much chemosis** (swelling of the surface of the eye) that, like the first patient, the lid was caught behind the eye so she couldn’t close or move it. The entire front portion of the eye was full of blood.

She was admitted to the hospital to have the eye removed.

**

Again, not my patient.