The Retina Reference

Blunt Trauma - Airbag Injury

These images were taken of the eyes of a 44 year old woman involved in a motor vehicle accident in which an airbag deployed and struck her left eye. The visual acuity was 20/16 right eye and 20/32 left eye. The monochromatic photographs show a normal right fundus (top left panel) and some retinal pigment epithelial metaplasia of the left fundus (yellow arrow, top right panel). The fluorescein angiogram is normal of the right eye (bottom left panel) and shows window defect hyperfluorescence where the retinal pigment epithelium is depigmented and atrophic in the left eye (orange arrow, bottom right panel).