In a shocking incident, a 64-year-old patient who was recovering from a cataract operation accidentally glued his eye shut when he mistook nail adhesive for eye drops.
He was left in agony after squeezing the popular glue – used to attach false nails – into his eye socket.
Doctors who pried open his eyelids with forceps said that the caise highlights the problems of superglue eye injuries.
They called for universal safety caps to be added to all household chemical containers.
The patient had been prescribed Timolol 0.25 per cent twice a day after a cataract operation a year earlier. But the plastic bottle bore a remarkable resemblance to that of the nail glue and he turned up in 'severe pain' at Oxford Eye Hospital.
Dr Imran Yusuf, the ophthalmologist who treated him said that the patient reported having instilled a common brand of nail glue – Boots Clear Nail Glue – into his left eye two hours previously after mistaking the container for his post-operative Timolol eye drops.
According to reports, after applying the glue the patient irrigated his left eye immediately with tap water without any effect on the pain or blurred vision.
The glue was removed using fine forceps without the need for anaesthesia. The man had also suffered a small tear to the cornea the clear 'front window' of the eye.
Thankfully, the patient's cornea healed and his vision returned after treatment with eye drops and other medications.
