Eye injuries affect a large portion of the population, frequently result in long-term disability, and are very expensive to treat. Each year, approximately 2.4 million individuals sustain an eye injury. Current morbidity statistics reveal that at least 30,000 such victims are left blind in at least one eye. Major eye injuries occur in motor vehicle crashes, as a consequence of sports-related impacts, and during military operations. This project is examining the effects of the superior and inferior oblique eye muscles relative to eye injury biomechanics.

Using in situ cadaveric eyes, the research plan involves quantifying tensile forces exerted on the eye from the superior and inferior oblique muscles; quantifying eye displacements between impact tests with the oblique muscles and matched tests without the oblique muscles; evaluating the viscoelastic, or rate dependent, nature of the forces and displacement as a function of the oblique muscles; and characterizing the effectiveness of existing eye injury criteria developed from previous research performed on specimens without the oblique muscles.

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