Metal in the Eye and MRI's

Apr 03, 2009 10 Replies

Has anybody had one of these orbital x-rays to determine if there are any metal fragments in or around your eyes prior to an MRI? Apparently the magnet can move any small piece in your eye and do major damage. When I got to that point on the consent form I couldn't rule out the possibility....I guess I'll find out tomorrow.


Yep, a few years back. Took about 1 minute - "stand here, hold this", click and it was done. They came back 5 minutes later and said no problems, go get your MRI, oh....be sure to remove any genital piercings as well. : )

OUCH Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Yes. It is a must and no bother.

After much research over the past 60 seconds. I've found out that you can be safe wearing your genital piercings in an MRI if they're nonmagnetic (which of course most are) and it's not the area of the scan.

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Ditto, three times for the eyes, and many times more for my artificial valve and stainless steel wiring. No biggie.

Steve

Damn, that has to be a powerful magnetic force. Metal does show up really well on xray. Outside of movement, induction heating seems to be part of the risk.

I took a wire brush fragment to my eye once. Not something you forget about quickly.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

I wouldn't be so sure. Any metal in the body, if placed within the gradient coils and the RF coils, can get hot. No, make that HOT!!! They are pumping up to 14 KW of RF into your body in some of the newer machines.

Jon

no, it depends upon the metal. i have a metal plate and screws in my neck and have had numerous mri's. yes, i've also had the orbital scan for eye metal fragments. you only need to do this once, and as long as you don't have any further eye/metal problems, it doesn't need to be repeated.

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