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Poked Left Eye With Fingernail And Having A Red And Irritated Eye. Have Dry Eyes. Could I Be Having Recurring Corneal Abrasions?

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Posted on Mon, 11 Nov 2013
Question: Last year I poked my left eye with my fingernail, woke up the next day with a red, very irritated eye. Went to my GP who gave me some ointment, the redness went away and the severe pain, but not the foreign body sensation.Went to eye doctor who just said that I have dry eyes and gave me restasis and lower plugs. Its been a year and I still have the foreign body sensation all the time. Could I be having recurring corneal abrasions,
doctor
Answered by Dr. Dadapeer K (1 hour later)
Brief Answer:
Dry eye related corneal problems.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Welcome to Health Care Magic
Iam Dr. Dadapeer, an Ophthalmologist and I answer eye related problems.

It seems from the history that you had fingernail injury one year back following which you had corneal abrasion which was treated by General Practitioner. After which eye specialist has started on Restasis eye drops and lower puntum plugs for diagnosis of dry eyes.

Coming to your question of Could I be having Recurrent corneal erosions?

Recurrent corneal erosions is because of defective attachment of corneal epithelium to basement membrane called as Bowmans membrane resulting in recurrent episodes of breakdown of epithelium resulting in recurrent corneal erosions.
Though it can follow minor injury like finger nail injury it is usually a part of syndrome called as recurrent corneal erosion syndrome because of dystrophy of cornea in which case it will involve both the eyes.
Since in your case it is following injury and injury is one year old it is unlikely to be recurrent corneal erosion syndrome.

Since you have been diagnosed with Dry eye, dry eye is known to cause complications like epithelial erosions, filamaentary keratopathy, punctate keratopathy...

Hence you may have any one of the corneal problems caused by dry eye.

Since you are already on treatment with Restasis eye drops which contains Cyclosporine for treatment of dry eye.
In addition you may require preservative free artificial tear eye drops for treatment of your corneal problem.
If the condition wont respond to it then you may go for therapeutic soft contact lenses for relief from symptoms.

Kindly discuss regarding these options of treatment with your eye doctor.

Hope I have answered your query.

Thank you
Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
doctor
Answered by
Dr.
Dr. Dadapeer K

Ophthalmologist

Practicing since :2003

Answered : 5709 Questions

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Poked Left Eye With Fingernail And Having A Red And Irritated Eye. Have Dry Eyes. Could I Be Having Recurring Corneal Abrasions?

Brief Answer:
Dry eye related corneal problems.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Welcome to Health Care Magic
Iam Dr. Dadapeer, an Ophthalmologist and I answer eye related problems.

It seems from the history that you had fingernail injury one year back following which you had corneal abrasion which was treated by General Practitioner. After which eye specialist has started on Restasis eye drops and lower puntum plugs for diagnosis of dry eyes.

Coming to your question of Could I be having Recurrent corneal erosions?

Recurrent corneal erosions is because of defective attachment of corneal epithelium to basement membrane called as Bowmans membrane resulting in recurrent episodes of breakdown of epithelium resulting in recurrent corneal erosions.
Though it can follow minor injury like finger nail injury it is usually a part of syndrome called as recurrent corneal erosion syndrome because of dystrophy of cornea in which case it will involve both the eyes.
Since in your case it is following injury and injury is one year old it is unlikely to be recurrent corneal erosion syndrome.

Since you have been diagnosed with Dry eye, dry eye is known to cause complications like epithelial erosions, filamaentary keratopathy, punctate keratopathy...

Hence you may have any one of the corneal problems caused by dry eye.

Since you are already on treatment with Restasis eye drops which contains Cyclosporine for treatment of dry eye.
In addition you may require preservative free artificial tear eye drops for treatment of your corneal problem.
If the condition wont respond to it then you may go for therapeutic soft contact lenses for relief from symptoms.

Kindly discuss regarding these options of treatment with your eye doctor.

Hope I have answered your query.

Thank you