The Clinical Features of Geriatric Ocular Trauma in a Regional Emergency Medical Center

Jang, Jae Ho; Lee, Seung Woo

Abstract

BACKGROUND
The development of the medicine and the rise in the expectation of living has led the Korea into an aging society and the senior population in the Korea continues to grow. The objective of this study is to investigate the clinical features of geriatric ocular trauma in in a regional emergency medical center.
METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 163 eyes of 146 patients older than 65 with ocular trauma who visited Emergency Room of Dongguk University Gyeongju Hospital from March 1, 2007 to February 29, 2012.
RESULTS
In all patients, the incidence of the geriatric ocular trauma in patients over 65 was 7.3% (146 patients). And it was found to be 2.4 times more common in males (103 patients, 70.5%) than it was in females (43 patients, 29.5%). The mean age of patients was 70.7 years. Geriatric ocular trauma occurred mostly in the summer and the most common place of occurrence was the streets. Traffic accidents were the most common reason (35 patients, 24%) and the most common form of ocular trauma was the corneal erosion (42 patients, 21.1%).
CONCLUSION
Through this study we found out the characteristics and the tendency of geriatric ocular trauma. And these results can be helpful in the prevention of geriatric ocular trauma and the improvement on treatment of geriatric ocular trauma.