Hyphema is most commonly caused by?

• A. Trauma
• B. Autoimmune disease
• C. Vascular malformation
• D. Systemic anticoagulation therapy

Answer: (C)

Bleeding into the front chamber of the eye occurs most often after an eye injury. Blunt or penetrating trauma can rupture tiny vessels in the iris or ciliary body, allowing blood to pool in the anterior chamber. This mechanism makes trauma by far the leading cause across age groups and settings such as sports, accidents, or falls.

Other causes do exist but are much less common. Systemic anticoagulation or antiplatelet therapy can worsen or reveal bleeding, and ocular conditions with fragile new vessels (like in diabetic retinopathy) or rare vascular malformations can lead to bleeding, but these are far less frequent compared with traumatic causes. So the scenario most likely to produce a hyphema is trauma to the eye.