Discharge advice following Corneal Abrasion

What is my injury?

You have a scratch, or graze, to the lining of your eye which is called the cornea. This scratch is called an abrasion.

The cornea is a clear layer covering the front of the eye and is commonly injured by objects including contact lens, twigs or branches, fingers or nails or metal from grinding without safety goggles.

There may be a foreign body (something that shouldn’t be there) on your eye. If so, the doctor will have removed it, leaving the abrasion beneath it.

What is the treatment?

The cornea regenerates and grows new tissue so will repair itself within a few days.

Antibiotic ointment, such as Chloramphenicol, helps to stop your eye getting dry and reduces the risk of infection. You should be use this 4 times a day for a few days.

To apply the antibiotic ointment, first wash your hands. Then pull the lower eyelid slightly away from the eye and squeeze a small strip of the ointment into this space in your eye. It is often useful to hold the tube with the ointment in your hands for a few minutes to warm it, as it comes out of the nozzle easier.

The abrasion is irritating and may cause pain. You can use painkillers such as paracetamol and ibuprofen.

Follow up

For simple abrasions, no follow up appointments at the hospital or GP are usually necessary.

For some abrasions, especially larger ones or ones in the middle of your cornea, your doctor may have suggested that you follow up with a LENS optician. LENS (Lanarkshire Eye Network Scheme) are opticians trained in this and other minor conditions.

If your local optician is not a LENS practice, they will be able to advise of an alternative optician you can attend.

Complications

Corneal abrasions normally heal well, and complications are very unusual.

If your vision gets worse after your visit to the Emergency Department you should return to A&E for a review urgently.

Alternatively, you can attend your LENS optician who will also be able to assess you.

Contact lens users

The abrasion must be fully healed before contact lenses are used in the eye. Do not use contact lenses for at least a week and you should have an optician assess the eye before you return to using them. This does not need to be a LENS optician.

Confidentiality and the use of patient information

NHS Lanarkshire take care to ensure your personal information is only accessible to authorised people. Our staff have a legal and contractual duty to keep personal health information secure, and confidential. In order to find out more about current data protection legislation and how we process your information, please visit the Data Protection Notice on our website at www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk or ask a member of staff for a copy of our Data Protection Notice.

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