Ocular trauma in patients presenting to Dhulikhel Hospital

Abstract

Background Ocular trauma is an important cause of blindness and ocular morbidity throughout the world. Prevalence studies help to define the target group, plan strategies and thereby lessen trauma related blindness in the country. Objective To identify the risk factors for ocular trauma, those at risk, describe the visual acuity at time of clinical presentation, and assess the nature and severity of ocular trauma in patients presenting to Dhulikhel Hospital’s emergency department and eye OPD with ocular trauma. Methods It is a descriptive and prospective study of all the patients with ocular trauma presenting to Dhulikhel Hospital from December 2009 to December 2010. A complete history and detailed ophthalmologic evaluation was done and noted down. Results There were 112 subjects with ocular trauma. Mean age was 28.43±16.36 years with a range of one year to 74 years. Males predominated with 72.3% frequency (p<0.001). Incidence peaked in third decade of life (p<0.01). Ocular trauma peaked in months of September and October. Presenting visual acuity better than 6/12 was noted in 83.9% of cases whereas 2.7% of cases had visual acuity of <3/60. Household (56.3%, p<0.001) was the commonest place of injury with wooden objects (19.6%) being the commonest object of injury. Most of the injuries were mechanical (85.7%, p>0.001). ConclusionBlunt injuries were more common in young males. Household and workplace were common location of ocular injuries. Public awareness and strict legislation to use personal protective devices can help to reduce the occurrence of ocular injury.http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/kumj.v9i1.6264 Kathmandu Univ Med J 2011;9(1):54-7

The impact of ocular trauma during the Nepal earthquake in 2015

“…In contrast, previous series in Nepal have demonstrated monocular blindness in only 5–10% of patients on follow-up [8], even when presentation was delayed [13], reflecting the greater severity of injuries in the current series. Blindness may be devastating for an individual, with loss of vision in one or both eyes being classified as a 24% or 85% whole person impairment respectively [17].…”

“…Corneal trauma leading to ulceration is the second most common cause of monocular blindness after cataract in Nepal. Major causes of ocular trauma in Nepal include agricultural and domestic work, road traffic accidents and physical assault [8]. Although there have been many reports describing ocular trauma in Nepal [6, 8–13], little is known about the burden of ocular trauma during the recent earthquakes in Nepal or burden due to other such natural disasters around the world.…”

Magnitude of ocular trauma in a tertiary care hospital of western Nepal

“…7,9 But other studies observed that most ocular injuries occurring during household activities. 1,2,6 71.8% of patients in this study presented in to the eye specialist within 48 hours after injury, 15.8% in between 48 hours -1 week while 12.4% presented after 1 week duration. Study at Dhulikhel also has reported that 54.5% patients presented within a day.…”

“…However wood stick was found to be most common object of injury in other studies. 6,11,12 In this study it was observed that out of 209 patients, only 5 patients gave history of wearing protective devices while working. It is believed that with education about use of proper eye protection, 90% of eye injuries could be prevented.…”

“…Our study has similarity with the study done in Dhulikhel which reported that ocular trauma occurred more frequently in 21-30 years of age group. 6 Similarly D.B…”