Can you imagine a simple act of blowing your nose can result in an eye injury? Well, it did happen with a 36-year-old woman who blew her nose so hard that she broke a bone in her left eye socket. The force led to an “orbital blowout fracture,” or a break in the thin bone that forms the floor of the eye socket, when the woman was at work.
According to the case report, which was published online June 28 in the journal BMJ Case Reports, the British woman shortly after forcefully blowing her nose, lost vision in both eyes, temporarily. Then, two hours later, her left nostril suddenly started to bleed, and she developed swelling around her left eye. After another few hours of vision problem and severe pain on the left side of her head and neck, she went to the emergency room.
Her report further reveals that the woman suffered a fracture in her left eye socket. The CT scan shows that she has specifically, broke her lamina papyracea, one of the bones surrounding the eye.
The North Middlesex University Hospital, where she was diagnosed, declared her injury as ‘very rare’. She was then given antibiotics for sinusitis, Co-amoxiclav, and discharged with instructions to not blow her nose, smoke or play contact sports.