Wait, why did that person's eye pop out in E.R?

[Hindiana_Jones]

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Wait, what just happened in ER? Why did his eyeball pop out of his socket? 😱

 

[Megalofyia]

Because it's gross..

 

[Zback]

I was wondering the same thing, the Doc was moving something infront of the eye that looked like a pinlight, then the opposite eye pops out of socket.

 

[bmcgilligan]

It wasn't a penlight. He said he was testing for glaucoma...so it was that puff of air. At least I think so.

 

[themann]

Yeah I thought it was the little pen for testing glaucoma, but that still doesn't explain why his eye popped out. Admittedly I wasn't paying very good attention to the show, so I have no idea what happened.

I think I am going to have to agree with Megalofyia (always a good idea) in that it was probably just for novelty. I mean who doesn't want to see someones eye pop out regardless of a sound medical basis?

 

[Hindiana_Jones]

I don't know if it was a puff of air...When I shadowed in E.R at UIC one of the doctors was checking a patient eye pressure. He showed me this device, which looks like a pen, but vibrates. He placed this on the surface of the patients eye, but I don't remember why he was checking it... The patient came in b/c they had gotten a fleck of metal in their eye. I guess I need to be more attentive when I am shadowing.

 

[Prophecies]

The device they were using is called a tonopen...it measures the pressure within someone's eye...it vibrates (I think) and clicks to let you know it has taken the readings. Yeah...didn't understand how the eye popped out. I remember Abby said something about "Didn't you remember to do" blah blah, but I couldn't hear what she said. Gross! hahaha

 

[sistermike]

Well when the patient came in, I believe he was having some sort of blurry vision. As far as I could tell his eye popped out because he sneezed. I asked my partner why his eye popped out and he said that if you eye has very weak attachments (for whatever reasons would cause that - I have no idea) but when someone sneezes, that persons eye can potentially pop out because of the week attachements. Hmm...

 

[dmitrinyr]

Well i'm not 100% sure of why his eye popped out, but I can give a suggestion Abby gave him a Beta-blocker which decreases you heart rate and blood pressure. Then Jake, was testing the pressure of his eye with that apparatus, when the patient started to caugh. His eye could have had high pressure and the added pressure of the caughing reflex could have possibly been enough pressure to override the stabilizers of the eyeball and make it pop out.

dmitri

 

[Megalofyia]

Well i'm not 100% sure of why his eye popped out, but I can give a suggestion Abby gave him a Beta-blocker which decreases you heart rate and blood pressure. Then Jake, was testing the pressure of his eye with that apparatus, when the patient started to caugh. His eye could have had high pressure and the added pressure of the caughing reflex could have possibly been enough pressure to override the stabilizers of the eyeball and make it pop out.

dmitri

That's an awfully lot of thought for the writers of ER.

 

[dolchevita]

The device they were using is called a tonopen...it measures the pressure within someone's eye...it vibrates (I think) and clicks to let you know it has taken the readings. Yeah...didn't understand how the eye popped out. I remember Abby said something about "Didn't you remember to do" blah blah, but I couldn't hear what she said. Gross! hahaha

It's called "orbit subluxation" although I thought I remembered her saying "ocular subluxation". I don't think that is correct based on what I found out when I googled it. Look it up!

 

[cdreed]

I thought that they said the pt was hyperthyroid.

 

[Hosehead]

I thought that they said the pt was hyperthyroid.

The pt probably had Grave's ophthalmopathy

 

[ItsGavinC]

That's an awfully lot of thought for the writers of ER.

Agreed. It popped out because ratings are going down the tubes, and it's too difficult to write a script where a) a helicopter blade cuts out the eyeball or b) a tank runs over the eyeball.

 

[Prophecies]

Agreed. It popped out because ratings are going down the tubes, and it's too difficult to write a script where a) a helicopter blade cuts out the eyeball or b) a tank runs over the eyeball.

LOL no kidding. Ah...ER will soon be leaving us... 🙁

 

[kenmc3]

A Simple Maneuver to Reposit a Subluxed Globe
David T. Tse, MD
Arch Ophthalmol. 2000;118:410-411.


"In patients with thyroid orbitopathy, severe lid retraction and proptosis may produce spontaneous axial globe subluxation. This acute event is characterized by anterior displacement of the globe beyond the orbital rim, retraction of both upper and lower eyelids behind the globe, and tethering of the optic nerve.1-2 This frightening occurrence causes severe pain because of exposure keratopathy and forward displacement of the globe, as the retracted eyelids are squeezing the retrobulbar tissues. Spontaneous globe subluxation frequently occurs at home or at work, and patients experiencing this for the first time often panic because they have never been forewarned of this possibility nor received any instruction on how to attend to such an emergency."

 

[DrPharaohX]

Sounds like exophthalmos due to hyperthyroid/Grave's disease

 

[noncestvrai]

Exophthalmus, I thought it was found only in Grave's type of hyperthyroidism. Furthermore, it does not equate to what was seen on ER, spontaneous axial subluxation of the occular globe...i.e. what is the friekin mechanism, would hypertension and increased sensitivity of beta receptors have anything to do with it...?!?!

What precipitated this crisis...?

noncestvrai