Numerical modeling of paintball impact ocular trauma: identification of progressive injury mechanisms.

Purpose: To create a computer-based numerical simulation model for comparison with empiric paintball-ocular ballistic study findings, allowing identification of the dynamic physical mechanisms (stress, strain, pressure) responsible for intraocular traumatic injury accompanying blunt ocular impact. Virtual experiments with numerical models could exploit mathematical "instrumentation" to facilitate internal observation impossible with physical experiments alone.

Methods: Models of human eye structures and orbit were implemented into the finite-volume Eulerian numerical hydrocode CTH.

Blunt eye trauma: empirical histopathologic paintball impact thresholds in fresh mounted porcine eyes.

Purpose: Ballistic studies were conducted using gelatin-embedded abattoir-fresh porcine eyes suspended within clear acrylic orbits to discern the energy required to produce specific ocular injuries. Paintball impact provides a robust ballistic model for isolating and quantifying the role of direct blunt force in ocular trauma.

Methods: Fifty-nine porcine orbital preparations received direct blows from 0.