Why not bandage when chemicals are in the eye?

Question

please see the paragraph below... Why wouldn't you bandage an eye with chemicals?

thanks! =)

f the eyes come in contact with caustic chemicals, begin first aid immediately, flushing the eye with water for at least 15 to 30 minutes. Open the eye as wide as possible using your fingers to spread the lids. While flushing the eye, have the patient roll their eye as much as possible to clean all surfaces. Do not use an eye cup or bandage the eye.

Answer 1

It depends.

Your question is being answered by something you read for general medical advice. The type of injury, type of chemical, acid or base or it's concentration determines the treatment options. Since anything that penetrates the tissues can cause severe ocular damage, it seems that most of the injury is usually on the cornea and conjunctiva and the lids. After washing and washing and washing, ER doctors will test the acidity with litmus paper to see if the pH is back to normal, or about 7. But if there has been severe damage, the problem is just beginning. Acids cause coagulation of the proteins and forms a barrier from further penetration. But basic solutions (lye) just eat and eat and go deeper and deeper.

After the initial first aide washing one then has to be sure that the lids don't stick to the eyeball. After placing antibiotic and steroid ointments, one has to follow up with 3 or 4 or more times a day using some blunt instrument such as a glass rod along with topical anesthesia if the nerves haven't been injured or destroyed, to break the adhesions that form between the eye surface and the lids. If this isn't done, the scar tissues that form are severe and can freeze the eye to the lids.

These chemicals also destroy the tear producing cells so there are basically no tears. These surfaces have to get some sort of lubrication somewhere, so topical ointments are used as they stick around a lot longer than drops. Even over the counter bacitracin ointment is better than none if you're out in the woods somewhere and can't get to medical help initially.

If the burn is not that bad, one does patch. One patches the eye with antibiotic/steroid ointment between the lid and eyeball till the corneal epithelium has regrown over the surface of the cornea. After that there is no need for patching. Some feel that patching just creates a warmer than usual environment or rich culture media for bacteria such as normal Staph. to grow and cause ulceration of the tissues.

There's a LOT more stuff going on here than one would think. How do they recreate the ocular surface and then later possibly do a corneal graft to restore vision? There's a course in the up comming Academy of Ophthalmology where the topic is how to use Amniotic membrane or Stem Cell membranes from culture, to resurface by grafting. Also grafting from the other eye or from a donor eye can be used to restore tear secreting cells to the ocular surface. Once that's done and it holds and isn't rejected, then one could consider doing a corneal transplant or graft. But the eye has to be really calm, and no longer inflamed or the graft won't last.

Almost everything you'll read about in medicine has 'usual' treatments or generally recommended treatments and then the multiple exceptions to the rule.

So, it depends.

Answer 2

I'm not sure it is so much, that you shouldn't... as much as "Why would you ?".