A young man in Edinburgh, Scotland, used a high-frequency massage gun on and around both eyes every week for about three months, hoping to ease tiredness. When floaters and flashes of light finally sent him to an eye clinic, doctors found multiple retinal tears in both eyes, bruising of both retinas, and a separation at the edge of the right retina.
The case, from clinicians at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion and published June 18 in BMJ Case Reports, is not an isolated oddity. Doctors have published a small but striking set of case reports tying percussive massagers to injuries far from sore muscles, including a torn neck artery with a stroke and a dangerous breakdown of thigh muscle.
