Ophthalmologic Examinations in Areas of Miyagi Prefecture Affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake

Abstract

apan has a long history of devastating earthquakes and tsunamis. 1 On March 11, 2011, the Tohoku area suffered an unprecedented disaster when it was struck by the most powerful earthquake in Japanese history followed by a massively destructive tsunami. The most serious damage was caused by the tsunami along the northeastern coast. The coast of Miyagi Prefecture between the towns of Matsushima and Kesennuma has a population of approximately 320 000 (Figure). 2 There were relatively few ophthalmologic institutions in this area before the disaster. Afterward, more than half IMPORTANCE One month after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, our clinic was granted free use of the Mission Vision Van, a customized bus airlifted to Japan. This mobile eye clinic made it possible for us to provide ophthalmologic examinations anywhere in the disaster zone in Miyagi Prefecture.OBSERVATIONS This study included 731 patients who received treatment in the eye care van in Miyagi Prefecture between April 15 and May 29, 2011. We examined and cared for patients during 25 visits to 11 emergency districts during 15 clinic days. Of the 914 diagnoses we identified, 358 were refractive disorders (39.2%), which were the most common ocular diseases we observed; others included 155 (17.0%) cataracts, 106 (11.6%) dry eye, and 73 (8.0%) infectious diseases, such as conjunctivitis. Overall, we provided emergency prescriptions for 871 bottles of eyedrops comprising 222 prescriptions (25.5%) for dry eye, 189 (21.7%) for cataracts, and 107 (12.3%) for glaucoma. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEA substantial number of patients in the earthquake-damaged areas needed replacements for eyeglasses, contact lenses, and eyedrops. The mobile clinic appears to be a useful way to provide ophthalmologic examinations and support after a disaster.

Ocular morbidity in natural disasters: field hospital experience 2010–2015

“…Indeed, of all the ocular conditions treated in the three field hospitals, 75.5% were NDRDs. This is consistent with the data from the reports on the 2011 earthquake in Japan, where preexisting ocular conditions were more common than traumarelated conditions [7,8].…”

“…No penetrating eye injury was observed in any of the three disasters. Most of the DRDs were lacerations of the eyelids and the periorbital areafindings compatible with the reports from the 2011 earthquake in Japan [7,8,20], which may be explained by the protection of the eye by the bony orbit and eyelids.…”

“…The success of a field hospital dispatched in response to a natural disaster depends on appropriate preparation of the medical teams, equipment and technical personnel tailored to both the type and geographic location of the disaster [6][7][8][9][10][11]. Since ocular injury management usually requires specialized ophthalmic personnel, it is important to know how much ophthalmic resources should be allocated to the field hospital.…”

The impact of ocular trauma during the Nepal earthquake in 2015

“…Reports describing outreach Ophthalmological management in the 1 month following the Great Japan earthquake also described longer term management following natural disasters. Key issues that were addressed included replacing lost eye glasses, managing pre-existing ocular diseases that required medical therapy and providing surgical follow-up after the acute management of ocular trauma [26–28]. …”

Phenotypic Features of Oguchi Disease and Retinitis Pigmentosa in Patients with S-Antigen Mutations

“…In some patients (patients R319 and R336), prior clinical records were not retrievable because they were lost during the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. 22…”