SATURDAY, Dec. 29, 2012 (HealthDay News) -- If you plan to pop a bottle of Champagne or sparkling wine over the holidays, make sure you do it safely, the American Academy of Ophthalmology says.
Warm bottles of Champagne combined with improper cork removal can cause serious, potentially blinding eye injuries. The pressure inside a bottle is powerful enough to launch a cork at 50 miles per hour -- fast enough to shatter glass.
"When a Champagne cork flies, you really have no time to react and protect your delicate eyes," Dr. Monica Monica, an ophthalmologist and spokeswoman for the AAO, said in an academy news release.
"Uncontrolled Champagne corks can lead to painful eye injuries and devastating vision loss," she said. "We don't want anyone to end up ringing in the year on an ophthalmologist's surgery table."
Potential eye injures from a flying cork include rupture of the eye wall, acute glaucoma, retinal detachment, ocular bleeding, dislocation of the lens and damage to the eye's surrounding bone structure. In some cases, these injuries require emergency eye surgery or can lead to blindness in the damaged eye.
The AAO offered the following advice on how to properly open a bottle of champagne:
More information
Prevent Blindness America has more about preventing eye injuries.