Korean J Ophthalmol.  2004 Jun;18(1):70-78. 10.3341/kjo.2004.18.1.70.

Clinical Features of Ocular Trauma in Emergency Department

• Oum BS
• Lee JS
• Han YS

• KMID: 1115787
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3341/kjo.2004.18.1.70

Abstract

This study analyzed a hospital-based study to investigate the incidence and clinical features of ocular traumatic emergencies in Korea. Over a 6-year period, 1809 patients with ocular traumatic emergency each individually underwent clinical study including subject characteristics, type of ocular emergency, disease severity, etiology of ocular trauma, injury location, cause of decreased visual acuity, management of ocular injury, and final visual acuity. The homogeneity of each finding of the clinical features of ocular traumatic emergency was tested by an X2 test at a 95% level of certainty. During follow-up periods ranging from 3 days to 23 months (mean 2.0 months), the 1809 patients with ocular traumatic emergency, 1183 males (65.4%) and 626 females (34.6%), were studied. The incidence of ocular emergencies peaked in the third decade of life, irrespective of gender (P< 0.05). Corneal abrasion was the most common etiology among 1, 552 (85.8%) closed injuries, and corneal laceration among 257 (14.2%) open injuries (P< 0.05). There were 542 cases (30%) of severe ocular injury, such as penetrating ocular injury, blow out fracture, and intraocular foreign body (IOF), and 1267 (70%) of less severe ocular injury, such as superficial ocular injury or contusion. The most common etiology of severe ocular injury was penetrating ocular injury, and that of less severe injury was corneal injury (P< 0.05). The main causative activity of ocular injuries was work in 631 cases (34.9%), assault in 398 (22.0%), play in 278 (15.4%), traffic accidents in 145 (8.0%) and sports in 128 (7.1%). Five hundred and fifty-four cases (32.5%) underwent surgical intervention. There was an improvement of visual acuity in 502 cases (70.1%), no change in 122 (17.0%), and worsening in 92 (12.9%). We suggest that preventive educational measures be instigated at workplaces to reduce the incidence of ocular traumatic emergency, especially severe ocular injury.

Keyword

hospital based study; Korea; ocular emergency; ocular injury

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Adult
Age Distribution
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Child
Child, Preschool
Emergency Medical Services/*statistics & numerical data
Eye Injuries/*epidemiology
Female
Humans
Incidence
Infant
Korea/epidemiology
Male
Middle Aged
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Retrospective Studies
Sex Distribution
Visual Acuity

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Distribution of age and gender of traumatic ocular injury

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  Fig. 2 Incidences of severity of ocular injury

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  Fig. 3 Outcome of visual acuity of ocular traumatic emergency

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