April has been designated as eye injury prevention month, and fittingly, my first article for April is on eye injuries in sports.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology estimates that 90% of eye injuries are preventable. Unfortunately, they also note that approximately 100,000 eye injuries are reported each year. Roughly 42,000 of those injuries require evaluation in emergency departments. In fact, a patient with a sports-related eye injury presents to a United States emergency room every 13 minutes. Approximately 13,500 people become legally blind from sports-related eye injuries annually. It is estimated that sports-related eye injuries cost between $175 million and $200 million per year.
-Sources: American Academy of Ophthalmology. March 31, 2014.
Eye Health in Sports and Recreation. Eye Smart. Mar. 20, 2014.
