title: Airbag deployment-related eye injuries.
abstract: We studied the correlation between airbag deployment and eye injuries using 2 different data sets.
  
  
  
  The registry of the Finnish Road Accident (FRA) Investigation Teams was analyzed to study severe head- and eyewear-related injuries. All fatal passenger car or van accidents that occurred during the years 2009-2012 (4 years) were included (n = 734). Cases in which the driver's front airbag was deployed were subjected to analysis (n = 409). To determine the proportion of minor, potentially airbag-related eye injuries, the results were compared to the data for all new eye injury patients (n = 1,151) recorded at the Emergency Clinic of the Helsinki University Eye Hospital (HUEH) during one year, from May 1, 2011, to April 30, 2012.
  
  
  
  In the FRA data set, the unbelted drivers showed a significantly higher risk of death (odds ratio [OR] = 5.89, 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.33-10.9, P = 2.6E-12) or of sustaining head injuries (OR = 2.50, 95% CI, 1.59-3.97, P = 3.8E-5). Only 4 of the 1,151 HUEH patients were involved in a passenger car accident. In one of the crashes, the airbag operated, and the belted driver received 2 sutured eye lid wounds and showed conjunctival sugillation. No permanent eye injuries were recorded during the follow-up. The calculated annual airbag-related eye injury incidence was less than 1/1,000,000 people, 4/100,000 accidents, and 4/10,000 injured occupants.
  
  
  
  Airbag-related eye injuries occurred very rarely in car accidents in cases where the occupant survived and the restraint system was appropriately used. Spectacle use did not appear to increase the risk of eye injury in restrained occupants.
authors.affiliation: a Finnish Motor Insurers' Centre , Road Safety Unit , Helsinki , Finland.|b Finnish Crash Data Institute OTI , Helsinki , Finland.|c Aalto University , Department of Engineering Design and Production , Aalto, Espoo , Finland.
authors.forename: Tapio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koisaari
authors.affiliation: d Department of Ophthalmology , University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital , Helsinki , Finland.
authors.forename: Tiina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Leivo
authors.affiliation: d Department of Ophthalmology , University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital , Helsinki , Finland.
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sahraravand
authors.affiliation: d Department of Ophthalmology , University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital , Helsinki , Finland.
authors.forename: Anna-Kaisa
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Haavisto
authors.affiliation: a Finnish Motor Insurers' Centre , Road Safety Unit , Helsinki , Finland.
authors.forename: Pekka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sulander
authors.affiliation: d Department of Ophthalmology , University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital , Helsinki , Finland.
authors.forename: Timo M T
authors.initials: TMT
authors.lastname: Tervo
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D017278:Air Bags / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005131:Eye Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012042:Registries; D012306:Risk; D012622:Seat Belts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: airbag; eye injury; eyewear; head injury; seat belt