NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Bungee cords -- elastic cords with metal hooks at each end often used to secure items-- can cause severe eye injuries, according to a report in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.
"The usefulness of this device for the camper or vacationer is well known," the investigators write, "but the potential for injury is not."
"Bungee cords are associated with serious ocular injuries and should be used with caution," they warn.
In the article, a team of Ohio ophthalmologists describe the cases of four people with ocular injuries associated with being struck in the eye by the recoil of a bungee cord. All of the injuries were "sight-threatening."
According to Dr. Louis J. Chorich III and colleagues from the Eye Center at Ohio State University in Columbus, the eye injuries seen in these four patients included "...corneal abrasion, hyphema, iridodialysis, anterior chamber angle recession, secondary glaucoma, lens subluxation, vitreous hemorrhage, and retinal detachment."
Surgery was required on three of the four injured eyes and although in each case sight was saved, the injury "places these individuals at risk for secondary glaucoma and subsequent visual loss in the future," write the researchers.
Ocular injuries associated with bungee cord use differ from those seen in bungee cord jumpers, the authors add, in that the ocular injuries associated with being struck in the eye by a bungee cord are typically blunt injuries, while bungee jumpers have been known to experience retinal hemorrhage, which is possibly a result of "...rapid deceleration in the head-down position."
SOURCE: American Journal of Ophthalmology (1998;125:270-272)
