A student in his 20s wanted relief from a feeling of tiredness in his eyes. For about three months, roughly once a week, he held a high-frequency percussive massage gun on and around both eyes for several minutes at a time. When floaters and flashes of light sent him to an eye clinic in Edinburgh, Scotland, doctors found multiple retinal tears and retinal bruising in both eyes. His right eye also had a retinal dialysis, a tear in which the retina separates at its outer edge.
Ophthalmologists Niamh O'Connell and Ashraf Khan of the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion described the case in BMJ Case Reports on June 18, and one detail reaches beyond a single patient. The massage gun was bought commercially and used without professional guidance, and the patient said he was unaware of any warning against using it on the eyes. The authors called for clear manufacturer warnings against improper use.
