First Aid - Black Eye Treatment

Tag it:

Thursday, 07 February 2008

Please call 911 immediately if you are having chest pain, difficulty breathing, severe bleeding, sudden weakness or numbness, or if you think you have a medical emergency.

Black Eye Treatment

Self-Care at Home

Rest and ice applied early after the injury help to decrease swelling and pain.

Ice helps to decrease swelling by constricting blood vessels, by decreasing fluid accumulation, and by cooling and numbing the area.

Apply ice for 20 minutes an hour every hour while awake, for the first 24 hours. Ice should not be applied directly to the injury.
To avoid potential cold injury to the site, wrap the ice in a cloth or use a commercial ice pack. A bag of frozen vegetables wrapped in a cloth makes a good ice pack.

Protect the area from further injury. Avoid athletic or other possibly injurious activities until the eye has healed.

Do not put a steak or a piece of raw meat on a black eye. No scientific evidence supports this treatment. Putting potentially bacteria–laden meat on a mucous membrane or an open skin injury can be dangerous.

Medical Treatment

For simple, uncomplicated black eyes, the treatment prescribed is similar to home treatment: ice, pain medications (avoid aspirin–unless prescribed by a doctor or cardiologist for a heart condition – because this may increase bleeding), rest, and protection of the injured area.

For more complicated injuries, the patient may be referred to an appropriate specialist:

A neurosurgeon for injuries to the skull or the brain
An ophthalmologist for injuries to the eye itself
An otorhinolaryngologist [ear, nose, and throat (ENT)] for fractures to the face
A plastic surgeon to repair serious cuts to the face

VitaDocs Medical Reference from eMedicineHealth

This information is not intended to replace the advice of a doctor.