Trends in Sports-Related Ocular Trauma in United States Emergency Departments from 2010 to 2019: Multi-Center Cross-Sectional Study

Ophthalmologic Emergencies

“…Because eye injuries may result from child maltreatment, maintain a high degree of suspicion when assessing children with ocular injuries (Christian & Binenbaum, 2022). Sports-related injury is a frequent etiology in pediatric eye trauma among children aged 10-17 (Kim et al, 2022;Miller et al, 2018;Patel et al, 2023). In a cross-sectional analysis of sports-related ocular trauma obtained from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety National Electronic Injury Surveillance System All Injury Program dataset, Patel et al (2023) found that basketball (37.8%), baseball (12.8%), and football (12.3%) accounted for most sports-related ocular injuries.…”

“…Sports-related injury is a frequent etiology in pediatric eye trauma among children aged 10–17 (Kim et al, 2022; Miller et al, 2018; Patel et al, 2023). In a cross-sectional analysis of sports-related ocular trauma obtained from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety National Electronic Injury Surveillance System All Injury Program dataset, Patel et al (2023) found that basketball (37.8%), baseball (12.8%), and football (12.3%) accounted for most sports-related ocular injuries. Corneal/scleral abrasions were more common with basketball injuries, contusions with baseball, and major anterior and posterior ocular injuries occurring more often from nonpowder guns (paintball, BB, and pellet) and soccer.…”

“…THERE ARE AN ESTIMATED 2–3 million emergency department (ED) visits in the United States for eye complaints, with estimates projected to increase due to a declining ophthalmology workforce and challenges in access to care resulting in more emergency department (ED) visits for eye complaints (Kim et al, 2022; Lee et al, 2019; Patel et al, 2023). Most patients who present to the ED have nontraumatic eye complaints (Channa et al, 2016); however, an analysis of the National Emergency Department Sample data set found that approximately one third of ED visits for eye complaints are related to eye trauma, which is more common during the summer months, in males, and in patients between the ages of 20 and 60 years (Kim et al, 2022; Ramirez et al, 2018).…”

Implementation of anterior segment ophthalmic telemedicine

“…However, as novel technologies and care models are deployed, there is a pressing need to educate ophthalmology trainees and practicing ophthalmologists on tools and techniques to remotely assess an eye and communicate effectively with a patient via digital tools. Nonetheless, these skills are teachable, and indeed, efforts to educate ophthalmology residents on the use of telemedicine resulted in increased confidence in their ability to perform adequate clinical examinations remotely [8 instructive [9][10][11][12][13]. This review details recent advancements in ophthalmic telemedicine for anterior segment concerns and demonstrates useful tools and skills to implement anterior segment telemedicine.…”

“…Nonetheless, these skills are teachable, and indeed, efforts to educate ophthalmology residents on the use of telemedicine resulted in increased confidence in their ability to perform adequate clinical examinations remotely [8 ▪ ]. Given that uncorrected refractive errors and cataracts are the two most common causes of vision impairment related to anterior segment, and that anterior segment disease is the primary source of eye-related emergency room encounters, an overview of tools and techniques to adequately assess the anterior segment using ophthalmic telemedicine is instructive [9–13]. This review details recent advancements in ophthalmic telemedicine for anterior segment concerns and demonstrates useful tools and skills to implement anterior segment telemedicine…”