Exercise resistance bands cause a wide spectrum of ocular trauma.
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Iritis and hyphema were the most common presentation of resistance band injuries.
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Some patients will not recover vision after resistance band injuries.
Abstract
Objective
To characterize injuries caused by exercise resistance bands.
Method
Single-site retrospective case series of patients presenting to the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute emergency room with ocular injuries secondary to exercise resistance bands from March through September 2020.
Results
Eleven patients (9 males, 2 females, 14 eyes) were reviewed. Eight patients had a unilateral injury (3 right eyes, 5 left eyes) while 3 had bilateral injuries. Iritis was the most common presentation, seen in all 11 patients, followed by hyphema (9 patients, 82%), and vitreous hemorrhage (4 patients, 36%). Among affected eyes, the mean presenting visual acuity was approximately 20/100, improving to 20/40 on the last follow up (p = 0.06). However, 4 eyes (33%) had vision ≤20/60 at last follow up.
Conclusions
Exercise resistance bands can cause a wide spectrum of ocular injuries, some leading to long-term vision loss. As such, we recommend that patients strongly consider using eye protection goggles or glasses while using resistance bands for exercise.
Bascom Palmer Eye Institute received funding from the NIH Core Grant P30EY014801, Department of Defense Grant #W81XWH-13-1-0048, and a Research to Prevent Blindness Unrestricted Grant. The sponsors or funding organizations had no role in the design or conduct of this research.