Abstract
The eye is notoriously intolerant of injury—and error in treatment. Because of this, eye injuries must be evaluated and treated by ophthalmologists, who will probably be deployed as a scarce theater-level asset. Pre-ophthalmic treatment—that is, treatment by combat buddies, medics, and non-ophthalmic providers forward of the first ophthalmic facility—is therefore largely limited to mitigation of the injury. These first steps, however, are critically important in setting the foundation for subsequent repair and can make the difference in the eye’s eventual outcome, and whether the eye “arrives alive” to the ophthalmologist or is “KIA”. This chapter focuses on the prehospital/preophthalmic care that should be undertaken for most significant eye injury types.
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Butler, F.K., Mazzoli, R.A. (2019). Prehospital Care of Combat Eye Injuries. In: Calvano, C., Enzenauer, R., Johnson, A. (eds) Ophthalmology in Military and Civilian Casualty Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14437-1_13
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