ABSTRACT
Obiective: To observe the changes in corneal tissue after seawater soaking following explosive injury in rabbits and the effects of seawater soaking on the healing of cornea after explosive injury. Methods:Make 20 similar explosive injury models of rabbit's eyeball using 10 adult grey rabbits. For each rabbit, the right eye was in experiment and the left one was for comparison. After the injury, the experimental eyes were soaked in seawater for 30 minutes and the comparable eyes were soaked in 0.9% sodium chloride injection for the same time. All eyes were underwent slit lamp examinations, fluorescein dyeing, and ultrasonic cornea thickness metering on the corneas before the injury and 1,2,3,4,5,7,9,10,15 and 20 days after the injury respectively. At the same time, 2 rabbits were killed and the eyes were examined pathologically. The cornea thickness numbers were compared using self- comparison t test and grouping t test. Results: After seawater soaking following explosive injury, slit lamp microscope examination found that the corneas were edema and turbidity, the experimental eyes were stricter than the control eyes. The corneas of the experimental eye were vascularized 10 days after the injury. Fluorescein dyeing showed that more apparent pigmentations were found on the experimental eyes than that on the control ones.Comparative examination under the optical microscope showed that the corneal tissues of the experiment eyes changed distinctly, their inflammations were patency and healing was delayed and the vascularization degree became high after the injury. Cornea thickness of the experimental eyes became apparently thicker than that of the control eyes. The difference was statistically significant. Conclusion:Scars and vascularization of various degrees will appear in corneal stroma after the explosive injuries. Seawater soaking will have bad effects on the healing of the cornea injured in explosions.