Pickleball has quickly become huge in the United States, with nearly 20 million people playing the sport.

But that popularity comes with a price. With more people on the court, pickleball-related eye injuries, including lacerations around the eye, corneal abrasions and inflamed irises, have increased. A study published this week in JAMA Ophthalmology estimates that the incidence of these injuries has risen dramatically, going up by an estimated 405 cases each year from 2021 to 2024.

Researchers looked at data from a representative population of patients in emergency departments across the U.S. to understand which pickleball players are especially vulnerable to eye injuries and how they occurred. From there, they estimated what those trends looked like on a national scale.

Given th

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