Woman blew her nose so hard it caused a facial fracture

A WOMAN blew her nose so hard that she temporarily lost her sight and broke a bone in her face.

The 36-year-old British woman was at work when her vision went, according to a report in the British Medical Journal.

Hours later, blood started dripping from her nostril, and the skin around her left eye started to swell. She also had stabbing pains in her eyes and a piercing headache that took her to A&E.

Doctors at the North Middlesex Hospital in London took a CAT scan of her face to understand the extent of the trauma, and they found that the forceful blowing had caused a fracture in a bone – the lamina papyracea – surrounding the left eye socket.

Doctors say it was a freak accident. Eye-socket fractures usually occur when someone gets punched or hit in the face with an object.

Dr Sam Myers, a surgeon at North Middlesex University Hospital, said it

‘She tended to close off one nostril and blow forcefully, which almost doubles the pressure in the sinuses’

was the first time he had heard of someone severely injuring themselves simply by blowing their nose.

“For one thing, the woman had a cold during the week of the incident and had been blowing her nose more frequently,” he said. “And the way she blew her nose could have also played a role. The woman tended to close off one nostril and then blow forcefully, which almost doubles the pressure in the sinuses as it forces all of the pressure out through the remaining open nostril, instead of both nostrils.”

The woman was also a smoker, which may have made her prone to a fracture, since smoking changes the pressures in the sinuses.

The case comes after David King, a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland, said that people could be causing damage by blowing their nose.

“On balance, it seems repeated and vigorous blowing of the nose may carry more risk than benefit, even though it seems to be a natural response to nasal congestion,” he said. “So looking to remove the need to blow so forcefully is probably a better option.”

Experts suggest the best method is closing one nostril at a time and lightly blowing through each one, which reduces the risk of mucus shooting into the sinuses. Anti-inflammatories may also help in reducing swelling and allowing the mucus to escape.