Although eye injury in elderly occurred more commonly on the farm during farm related activities, gender related differences are present with injury occurring more commonly in the home and during assaults/disputes.

Objective: To identify practice and pattern of self-medication use among new patients in ophthalmology clinic in a suburban community. Background: Self medication is a common practice all over the world. When consumers self-medicate without first consulting the eye care giver, issues of safety and inappropriateness of use arise. Methods: A cross sectional, analytic and questionnaire based study of 470 consecutive patients seen between April and June 2011 in a tertiary eye care centre in Nigeria was conducted. Data were analyzed using SPSS and p value <0.05 was considered significant. Results: The mean age was 43 ±24 years with a M: F ratio of 1:1.3. There was utilization of an initial medication in 73.6% (346) of the respondents before presentation. Of the group that utilized medication, 108(31.3%) could neither mention name nor show sample of medication used. Only 14.9% of patients consuming nonprescription drugs sought assistance from any health professional regarding proper selection or use. Majority (73.6%) of the patients got their medication following assistance sought from retail outlets of non-prescription medicine, friends, relations or self prescription. The utilized medications were inappropriate in 90% of the respondents who utilized them. The most common symptoms necessitating the utilization of initial medication were blurring of vision and itching. Conclusion: There was a high rate of self medication with blurring of vision and itching as the commonest complaints among the patients. There is still a very low incidence of preventive eye care in terms of ophthalmic check-up among our people.

Aim:Ocular trauma of varying aetiologies do occur frequently, however when different traditional/harmful substances are applied before presentation in the hospital, prognosis in terms of visual outcome following treatment may be worse than expected. This study is aimed at determining the prevalence of harmful/traditional eye medication practices among patients with traumatic eye injury in a tertiary institution.Study Design/Setting:It is a retrospective study of patients seen at the eye clinic of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (a state government owned hospital), Ado Ekiti, from January to December 2009.Method:A review of case notes (medical records) of patients with history of ocular trauma both open and closed globe injury and who presented to the eye clinic of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti from January to December 2009 was carried out. Demographic data of the patients, nature of the ocular trauma, substances applied to the eyes, visual acuity at presentation and after treatment were extracted. Frequencies and percentages were used in analysing the data.Result:A total of 1420 new patients attended the eye clinic during the study period (January to December 2009). Forty eight (3.4%) applied various substances into their eyes after sustaining ocular injury. Substances applied include Kerosene 25%, cassava water 20.8%, breast milk 12.5%, personal urine 10.8%, and cow urine 8.3%. Nearly half of the patients 23 (47.9%) presented with low vision and after treatment there was no visual improvement in almost all of them, 22 (45.8%). The period before presentation ranges between 1hr -2weeks post injury. However, the number of monocular blindness reduced from 8 (16.7%) to 5 (10.4%) after treatment.Conclusion:Kerosene and Cassava water were the common substances applied to the injured eye. The use of these harmful and traditional eye medications on injured eyes can reduce further the visual prognosis despite ophthalmic intervention.

The level of utilization of eye care services in the hospital by the staff is poor and very low compared with other facilities, although the majority had previous history of eye complaints.