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Chemical Spills

What you need to know and do if you have a chemical splash in your eye.

Chemical Spills in PRIMARYCITY

Chemical burns are when a liquid or powder chemical makes contact with the eye. Most of the time, chemical eye injuries happen when a chemical splashes across a person’s face, though they can also result from rubbing your eyes after handling chemicals. The injury potential varies depending on the chemical involved, and one’s degree of exposure.

While most cases of chemical eye injuries do not result in permanent damage, it is critical that you treat every chemical in the eye as an eye emergency. Call our office at 111-222-3333, if we are unavailable visit the ER or Urgent Care. 

Injuries can range from minor, temporary redness and irritation to blindness and total loss of an eye. In rarer cases, chemicals which get into the eyes can also cause poisoning as they’re absorbed into the bloodstream.

Whenever handling chemicals in any form, be sure to wear appropriate safety gear, such as goggles or a face shield. 

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Immediate Treatment

If a chemical gets into your eyes, it’s important to immediately remove any contact lenses and flush the eyes with water for 15 minutes. In cases involving non-toxic chemicals, such as soap or shampoo, this will be sufficient to get it out of your eyes and prevent any serious damage. However, you should still seek medical attention even in these cases if irritation or other systems persist. If an acid or alkali chemical gets into your eyes, seek medical attention immediately by calling our office at 111-222-3333 or visiting the emergency room or urgent care facility if we are unavailable.

Types of Chemical Injuries

Young men are the most likely demographic to sustain chemical injuries to the eyes, and more than 90 percent of these injuries are the result of accidental exposure, generally in industrial settings.

Acid Burns

Acid burns are generally caused by exposure to acids with a pH of less than 4. Common acids encountered in emergency settings include sulfuric acid (which is found in car batteries) and hydrochloric acid (which is used for cleaning swimming pools.)

Acids are usually less destructive to the eyes than alkali substances, due to their tendency to denature, coagulate, and precipitate corneal proteins when they come into contact. This creates a barrier and keeps the acid from penetrating further. This coagulation creates the ground-glass appearance often seen on the cornea in severe acid burns. Among acids, hydrofluoric acid (which is found in anti rust solutions and glass etching solutions) is a more dangerous exception to this rule, as it more rapidly penetrates entirely through the cornea, causing significant damage to the cornea and the anterior segment.

Alkali Burns

Alkali chemicals such as sodium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide, and ammonia can be found in things like drain cleaners or industrial cleaning solutions, fertilizers and household cleaning solutions, and cement and plaster.

Because alkali chemicals are lipophilic, they penetrate through the cell membranes easily, and substances within these chemicals can denature the cornea’s collagen matrix to allow the chemicals to penetrate further. Tissues that come into contact with these chemicals may sustain a great deal of damage, and the chemicals can continue to penetrate the body long after the initial exposure.

This direct chemical damage can lead to significant, lasting damage to the eyes in a very short time, so it is extremely important to be careful and stay protected when around such substances.

Types of Chemical Injuries
Levels of Severity

Levels of Severity

Depending on a number of factors, the severity of chemical burns can vary greatly. At lower levels of severity, damage is minimal and most patients will experience a complete recovery. At the higher levels, there is much greater damage and potential for long-term damage, up to vision or eye loss, even with the proper treatment. It is highly recommended that you have a licensed eye doctor assess and treat chemical spills to the eye.

Levels of Severity

Symptoms

While in most cases, someone who suffers a chemical burn to the eyes will be aware of it right away, it’s still important to be able to recognize the signs of such an injury, so that treatment begins quickly even in less severe instances.

Symptoms include:

  • A burning sensation
  • Stinging
  • Redness
  • Watery eyes
  • Pain
  • Swelling of the eyelids
  • Blurry vision

Additional Complications

Although the vast majority of chemical spills that require treatment do not lead to permanent injury, other, more serious, complications can arise. 

These include:

  • Corneal ulcer – superficial damage to the cornea
  • Corneal perforation – full thickness damage to the cornea, the clear surface of the eye
  • Glaucoma – high pressure within the eye, which damages the optic nerve
  • Cataracts – an abnormal clouding of the eye's lens
  • Retinal damage
  • Loss of the eye

Emergency Response

It’s vital that treatment of a chemical burn starts immediately at the site of the incident. The impacted eye(s) should be well irrigated with any available noncaustic fluid at the site of the injury and during transport to the hospital, urgent care, or eye doctors office. Additionally, any contact lenses should be removed as quickly as possible. Upon arriving at a qualified doctor, it’s important to tell the medical staff what chemical was involved, and especially whether it was an acid or an alkali.

Once in emergency care, irrigation should continue until the pH of the ocular surface returns to the normal range, between 7.0 and 7.2. pH strips can be used to check if the chemical has been completely removed. Prompt irrigation can help minimize the damage and long-term impacts. The level of pain experienced may not be a good indicator of the severity of the injury. Alkali chemicals, for example, may not cause immediately noticeable symptoms despite causing serious eye damage. Powder or particulate chemicals can cause more damage than a liquid, since they may be harder to flush out of the eyes.

Following the initial treatment, it’s important to receive a full eye exam, to confirm the location of the burn and to check how much damage there is. Other diagnostic tests can include a fluorescein evaluation, which uses a special dye which colors damaged or dead eye tissue yellow-green when under ultraviolet light.

Especially if there was damage detected, follow-up exams throughout the recovery process are important, to keep track of the treatment.

Types of Chemical Injuries
Levels of Severity

Treatment

Treatment will vary depending on the chemical involved and the severity of the burn, but may include:

  • Pain-relief medication
  • Medicated eye drops
  • Topical antibiotics (to reduce infection risk)
  • Lubricants, which are applied to the surface of the eye to keep the eyelids from sticking to the cornea during the healing process.
  • Specialized contact lenses may improve vision after a severe chemical burn 
  • Amniotic membranes may be used to treat severe burns
  • Anti-inflammatory medication

Even in less serious cases, be sure to follow your doctor’s advice regarding home care after the accident, make sure to return to follow-up checks, and if new symptoms arise, see your doctor right away.

Common Questions

The most important thing to keep in mind is not to panic if you get perfume in your eyes. If you are wearing contact lenses, you should wash your hands thoroughly and remove them. Additionally, you should not rub your eyes, as that may worsen the situation. It is important to wash your eyes to remove the burning or stinging sensation in your eyes. When you flush your eye out with water make sure to keep a constant stream of water for an extended period of time, and do not use hot water on your eye. The alcohol in perfume can cause irritation and inflammation of the cornea and conjunctiva, and extended exposure can lead to erosion of the epithelial layer. This is why it's important to rinse your eyes right away and not wait to see if the discomfort goes away on its own. In the event that you are still experiencing pain or discomfort after rinsing your eyes, call our office at 111-222-3333 to schedule an emergency eye exam.
Chemical Spills
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Summary

Eye injuries caused by chemical exposure can potentially be very serious, especially in the event of alkali chemical burns. If chemicals make contact with your eyes, be sure to immediately flush the eyes with water, and seek medical attention. Prompt treatment can be vital for preventing long-term damage. Our eye doctor and office are equipped to diagnose and treat burns from a chemical eye emergency, call our office right away at 111-222-3333 or if we are unavailable visit an emergency room or urgent care facility right away. Patients with eye emergencies visit our clinic from all over STATE, and we are proud to be a leading provider of urgent eye care for patients from CITY, SECONDARY1, SECONDARY2, and SECONDARY3.

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