After Suffering Pain And Worsening Vision, This Philadelphia Man Learned He Had A Bee Stinger Stuck In His Right Eye
A 55-year-old man from Philadelphia went to the Wills Eye Hospital because he was experiencing pain and worsening vision in his right eye. It turns out that part of a bee stinger was still lodged in his eye after he was stung by the insect.
Two days prior, the man had gotten stung by a bee. He visited the local emergency department to get the stinger removed.
However, some of the stinger was left in his cornea, which is the clear, dome-shaped part that covers the front portion of the eye. It’s like your eye’s windshield. The main function of the cornea is to refract or bend light.
“A man suffered a bee sting directly to his eye, resulting in an intense ocular inflammatory response which affected his vision,” said Talia Shoshany, an ophthalmologist at Wills Eye Hospital.
“The patient reports walking by a bee hive at work and being stung. He was not otherwise tending to the bees.”
When he was examined, the doctors found that the vision in his right eye was limited to counting fingers.
There was swelling of the cornea and a collection of inflammatory cells at the nasal limbus, a region of the cornea with a piece of stinger present.
In addition, the stinger caused vessels in the iris to bleed. Trauma of the iris caused a hyphema, which is when blood collects within the eye.
The iris is the colored part of the eye that surrounds the pupil. It controls the amount of light that enters the eye using muscles to adjust the size of the pupil. It is located between the cornea and the lens.
Jan Rozehnal – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual bee
The doctors used a pair of special tweezers to remove the rest of the stinger fragment from the man’s eye.
When a bee stings a person, it leaves its barb on their skin. Usually, the barb comes out on its own, but if it doesn’t, you’ll need to seek medical attention. The longer a stinger stays in the skin, the more venom is released.
The venom contains proteins that affect the immune system and skin cells in the area of the sting, leading to pain and swelling.
A bee sting in the eye is a more serious issue due to the sensitivity of the eye. Swelling can occur quickly and potentially impair vision.
There is also a risk of infection. Overall, this kind of incident can negatively impact eye health and function.
According to Shoshany, the man showed improvement with steroids and antibiotic drops. However, he eventually needed cataract surgery and a corneal transplant due to the harmful effects of the venom from the stinger. After several months of treatment, he managed to make a full recovery to his vision.
The details can be found in a paper from The New England Journal of Medicine.
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