Airbags Reduce Serious Eye Injuries

But increase risk of slight eye wounds

MONDAY, Nov. 11, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Airbags increase the risk of minor eye injuries but reduce the number of serious eye injuries in automobile crashes, says a study in the November issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University researcher Stefan M. Duma and colleagues examined the eye injury effects of frontal airbags deployed in head-on collisions. They studied data on 22,236 car crashes between January 1993 and December 1999 in the United States.

The researchers developed a four-level eye-injury scale that ranked eye injuries according to recovery time, need for surgery, and possible loss of vision.

Level 1 was the least severe (skin abrasions around the eye and eyelid) and Level 4 was the most severe (optic nerve damage, retinal detachment and globe ruptures).

The researchers found that 3.1 percent of 1,946,924 people exposed to air bag deployment suffered an eye injury, compared to 2 percent of 8,823,904 people who weren't exposed to air bag deployment.

The study found that 26 percent of all eye injuries were to people exposed to airbag deployment and 88 percent of those injuries were actually caused by the airbag.

In crashes where no airbags deployed, the windshield caused 34 percent of eye injuries, followed by the steering wheel at 27 percent, and the instrument panel, 14 percent.

The study found a statistically significant increase in the risk of corneal abrasions (scratches on the surface of the eye) for people exposed to an airbag deployment (0.5 percent) compared to people not exposed to airbag deployment (0.04 percent).

"Although more occupants were injured when exposed to an airbag deployment, the airbag did provide a beneficial exchange by decreasing the severity of the associated eye injuries," the researchers write.

More information

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has information on airbag safety.

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