There are some precious things that could make 2020 even worse. But a rare bee that lives to the right of the eyeball may be one of them.
Doctors have just released an image of such an unusual ocular impulse this week. The photo, which appears in the New England Journal of Medicine, also includes a brief report on the patient’s condition and recovery. The details confirm that although reading about this one-year-old horror show sometimes leads to frequent stabbing in the peppers, the real thing is actually more unpleasant.
The patient was a 22-year-old man who had redness, pain and reduced vision in his left eye in the hospital’s emergency department after taking a bee sting an hour earlier. However, the man had a 20/20 vision in his right eye, but reported that he could only see the movement of the hand near his face with his left eye.
With a closer look (see here), doctors reported seeing a smile spread across his left eye due to the swelling, and the bee stinger was still sticking out of his eyeball, which was surrounded by an eye gun. In particular, small spears were embedded in the man’s cornea – a clear, dome-shaped outer layer of tissue at the front of the eye that helps focus light.
Corneal run-throws with bee stingers are rare, doctors noted. But when that happens, there is a risk of corneal tissue failing and becoming cloudy (corneal disintegration). There is also the possibility of secondary glaucoma, in which the pressure inside the eye increases and the optic nerve is damaged and vision is damaged.
Before giving Stinger out, doctors gave the man some antibiotic eye drops and a local anesthetic. They then thoroughly cleaned the puncture wound and closed it with corneal sutures. Finally, they gave two-week worth of prescriptions for glucocorticoids, antibiotics, and ophthalmic drugs, which together tried to prevent inflammation, pain, and secondary infections.
In a relatively happy ending, a three-month follow-up visit revealed that the man’s eye had largely recovered. The corneal swelling went down completely, and the man’s vision in his left eye was 20/40.
