With more people on the court, pickleball-related eye injuries, including lacerations around the eye, corneal abrasions and inflamed irises, have increased.
Researchers looked at data from a representative population of patients in emergency departments across the U.S. to understand which pickleball players are especially vulnerable to eye injuries and how they occurred.
Given the “alarming” increase in eye injury cases, the study authors called for developing standardized guidelines for eye protection, which has been found to reduce up to 90% of sports-related eye injuries.
Players would benefit from standardized eye protection guidelines for pickleball, says Lacher.
“There’s $10 pickleball eye protection and there’s $160.
In the US, pickleball has rapidly grown in popularity, with almost 20 million players.
However, there’s a cost to that popularity. As the number of players on the court has grown, so too have pickleball-related eye injuries, such as corneal abrasions, inflamed irises, and cuts around the eye. An estimated 405 cases of these injuries are expected to occur annually between 2021 and 2024, according to a study published this week in JAMA Ophthalmology.
Data from a representative sample of patients in emergency rooms across the United States was examined by researchers. A. to learn which pickleball players are particularly susceptible to eye injuries and how they happened. They then calculated the national scale of those trends.
The authors of the study advocated for the creation of standardized guidelines for eye protection, which has been shown to lower up to 90% of sports-related eye injuries, in light of the “alarming” rise in eye injury cases. Other sports such as squash have mandated such guidelines.
According to the study, adults 50 years of age or older accounted for 70% of the cases. Since young athletes account for a significant portion of sports-related injuries, Dr. Natasha Desai, co-director of NYU Langone’s Center for Women’s Sports Medicine, was taken aback by this discovery.
There is no reason to believe that the sport is becoming more dangerous, according to Desai, who was not involved in this study. According to her, “there’s going to be more injuries at a higher volume because more people are playing.”.
Additionally, there are numerous ways to sustain injuries in pickleball, according to lead author Dr. Corey Lacher, an ophthalmologist resident at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. These include falling, being struck by a paddle, or being struck by the ball.
He says, “A lot of people think that just because it’s a wiffle ball, you’re not going to get hurt.”. But because “pickleball is very fast-paced and you’re playing on a very small court,” it’s still dangerous. “,”.
Desai notes that it’s not always easy to convince athletes to wear eye protection. It’s an additional piece of gear that players need to buy and carry. Additionally, picking a pair can be intimidating due to the abundance of options available.
Lacher says that uniform pickleball eye protection regulations would help players. “Pickleball eye protection costs $160, and it costs $10. How do you decide which one to purchase?
When purchasing eyeglasses, Lacher and Desai advise looking for items that adhere to the American Society for Testing and Materials’ F3164 standard and are composed of shatter-resistant polycarbonate.
Doctor. Daniel Henick is a Yale School of Medicine ophthalmology resident and a passionate pickleball player. He has been investigating which pickleball player groups wear eye protection and why the others do not. He claims that players’ ignorance of the dangers is one of the main causes of their failure to wear safety glasses.
According to Henick, eliminating injuries could be achieved by standardizing rules, putting them in plain sight of players outside courts, improving eye protection, and motivating professional pickleball players to serve as role models for newcomers.
According to the paper, its limitations include a small sample size and reliance on a database that only contains emergency departments that have consented to data collection. According to Lacher, however, raising awareness of these injuries is the study’s primary contribution.
According to Henick, these injuries can occasionally change a person’s life: “We’re talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of injuries every year that could be prevented with what could be a relatively simple intervention,” he says. “,”
USA Pickleball did not reply to a request for comment on the study’s call for eye-protection guidelines.
