There are many creative ways a young man in Edinburgh might spend his evenings. A brisk walk up Arthur’s Seat, perhaps. A quiet pint in a cosy pub. Maybe, at a stretch, some light yoga. What one unnamed twenty-something chose instead was to press a massage gun directly onto his eyeballs — repeatedly, enthusiastically, and for approximately three months — in the sincere belief that this would help with tiredness. Reader, it did not help with tiredness. It did, however, make him the star of a landmark medical case study, which is arguably a form of fame.
What Is a Massage Gun, and Why Are People Pointing Them at Their Faces?
Percussive massage guns have surged in popularity over the past few years, beloved by gym enthusiasts, weekend warriors, and people who enjoy owning gadgets that make an alarming noise. They work by delivering rapid, repetitive pulses of pressure deep into muscle tissue, helping to relieve soreness and improve circulation. When used on, say, a tight calf or a knotted shoulder, they are genuinely useful. When used on your eyes — soft, delicate, irreplaceable organs that evolution spent millions of years carefully engineering — they are, it turns out, catastrophic.
The patient in question had been applying the device both around and directly on both eyes on a weekly basis. He was, by all accounts, attempting to soothe eye fatigue. This is not an NHS-approved treatment for eye strain. It is not, in fact, approved by anyone, anywhere, at any point in recorded history. However, in fairness to the young man, nobody had apparently told him this explicitly, which suggests there may be a gap in the market for very strongly worded product packaging.
The Grim Catalogue of What a Massage Gun on Eyes Actually Does
When he finally shuffled into an Edinburgh eye treatment centre — prompted by the rather alarming onset of floaters and flashing lights — doctors Niamh O’Connell and Ashraf Khan were confronted with a sight that reportedly shocked even them. His right eye had sustained multiple retinal tears, widespread retinal bruising, and a condition called retinal dialysis, a serious form of retinal damage. His left eye, not to be outdone, had significant bruising and six small horseshoe-shaped tears. Six. Horseshoe. Tears.
The doctors, displaying the admirable restraint of the medical profession, simply asked whether anything “untoward” had happened involving his eyes. After a pause that one imagines was quite long and quite awkward, the young man admitted to the massage gun situation. The case was subsequently written up in the BMJ Case Reports journal, making it the first ever documented instance of retinal dialysis with multiple bilateral retinal tears caused by percussive massage. He is, whether he wanted to be or not, a pioneer.
The Science of Squishing Your Eyeballs Sideways
Furthermore, the mechanism of injury is as grimly fascinating as it is deeply unpleasant to contemplate. The rapid percussive action of the gun is believed to have compressed the eyeballs backwards into the socket at speed, causing them to deform outwards at the sides — a process the medical literature describes in technical terms, and which the rest of us might describe as “squishing.” Consequently, the retina, which lines the back of the eye like expensive wallpaper you really cannot afford to damage, was torn away at the edges.
Meanwhile, this is not even the first time someone has done this. A previously documented case involved a 42-year-old man in China who used a massage gun on his eyes and developed cataracts alongside lens dislocation. The lesson, one might think, would have spread. It has not sufficiently spread.
The Surprisingly Upbeat Ending (and a Word About Massage Gun on Eyes Safety)
The good news — and there is some — is that at his six-month follow-up, the Edinburgh man’s condition had stabilised. No progression of the retinal dialysis. No cataracts. His eyes, battered and bewildered, had apparently decided to carry on. However, the broader message from the medical community on the subject of using a massage gun on eyes is unambiguous: absolutely do not. If your eyes are tired, the College of Optometrists suggests rest, hydration, and reducing screen time. Not a handheld pneumatic hammer. Never that.
Read the original story at Oddity Central.
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