Penetrating orbital injuries from plant material during pond and river diving.

ABSTRACT

Diving into lakes and ponds is a common activity of rural children. We present two cases of penetrating orbital injuries from plant matter sustained in this manner. Such injuries pose a particular challenge because wooden foreign bodies are often missed during orbital exploration, and current imaging modalities cannot reliably identify retained organic material. When a patient presents with orbital penetration after a high-risk mechanism of injury, such as freshwater diving, the clinician must maintain a very high index of suspicion for retained wooden foreign body.