What Causes Bleeding From One Eye?

Posted on Thu, 13 Nov 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 13 Nov 2014 Answered on

Sat, 29 Nov 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : My 93 year old mother has blood in one eye. She is blind in this one eye. It is not painful.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Rovena (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Subconjunctival Hemorrhage.

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome and thank you for contacting Healthcare Magic.

I read carefully your query and understand your concern.
I would really appreciate If you could send me a picture of the affected eye (close view ) so I van give a better judgment.

If this bleeding is in the white part of your eye ,it is Subconjunctival Hemorrhage.This happens when small, delicate blood vessels in conjunctiva break and a small amount of blood spreads under the conjunctiva.
These tiny blood vessels in the eye can break spontaneously or caused from different factors like eye trauma (even minor one ) ,taking blood thinners such as Aspirin, Warfarin etc.
It is not as dangerous as it looks.It doesn't cause symptoms like pain or discomfort in the affected eye.
No specific treatment is needed.The blood in the eye will reabsorb gradually day after day.It may take up to 2 weeks for it to go away.

Hope it helps.
Let me know if you have any other question or doubt to clarify.I will be happy to assist you further.

Kind regards,
Dr.Rovena Murati

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Rovena (28 minutes later)

Thankyou for your reply. I don't have a XXXXXXX phone to take a photo (would not even know how to forward it to you as I am not very computer savvy).
The blood is in the white of the eye and while she does not remember hurting it in anyway she has a slight head cold and was sneezing a lot yesterday. My mother also takes blood thinning tablets.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Rovena (7 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
detailed below.

Detailed Answer:
Hello again!

The fact that she takes blood thinners and the blood is in the white part of her eye indicate that it is a subconjunctival hemorrhage.
Sneezing or coughing may have triggered the bleeding because that increase the pressure in the blood vessels.

You don't need to worry.As I said it looks much worse than it is in reality.
It will go away gradually .She doesn't need any kind of medication or specific cautions.

I wish you all the best.
Take care,

Dr.Rovena

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar