With a few exceptions, when foreign substances are splashed in the eyes it is recommended that the eyes be flooded constantly for twenty minutes or longer. Unfortunately, it is difficult to effectively wash someone’s eyes under ideal circumstances, let alone in the prehospital setting. This tip will allow you to safely and effectively wash your patient’s eyes using readily available supplies. You will need one or more bags of normal saline, a nasal cannula, and one set of standard (macrodrip) IV tubing.

Spike the bag of normal saline just as you would when preparing to start an IV. Attach the oxygen connector end of the nasal cannula to the distal end of the IV tubing. Place the patient in a supine or reclining position and place the prongs of the nasal cannula over the bridge of the nose so that one prong is pointed toward each eye. Open the flow control valve on the IV tubing and adjust the flow rate to keep a constant flood of saline in the eyes.

Encourage the patient to keep his eyes open and to alternately look in all directions. This will allow all exposed areas of the eyes and the surrounding membranes to be washed. A good way to do this is to ask the patient to look up, down, left, right, etc. as the eyes are washed. Since you can adjust the flow rate with this method, you will waste less fluid and will not overwhelm the patient with a deluge of fluid.