The findings of this study suggest that a significant proportion of welders in Ile-Ife were not utilizing protective eye device. Health education and awareness campaigns about the importance and benefits of utilizing protective eye devices are recommended.

No abstract

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.

No abstract

There is need to address causes of school absenteeism among children with SCA.

BackgroundOcular emergencies can cause permanent vision loss if they are not recognized and treated promptly. This study was carried out to identify the factors responsible for poor visual outcome following emergency eye surgeries.MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out on all patients who had surgical emergency eye procedures. Clinic and theatre records of all eligible patients were retrieved. Demographic characteristics, duration of symptoms, laterality, presenting visual acuity, documentary pictures, classfication of eye injury, duration of days before surgery, surgical procedures performed and six weeks post-operative visual acuity were obtained from the records. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 25.ResultsOne hundred and ninety-four patients had emergency eye surgical procedures constituting 16.3% of all ocular emergencies. There were 145(74.7%) males and 49 (25.3%) females with a male-to-female ratio of 3:1. The proportion of students, 48(67.6%), that presented within 24 hours of injury was the highest while the civil servants, 8(17.8%), had the lowest proportion. Corneo-scleral repair topped the list of surgeries and was the commonest, 106(54.6%), procedure carried out the same day of presentation. A 3rd of the patients, 28(34.1%), who presented within 24 hours had normal vision 6 weeks post-operatively while over 4/5th of the patients who presented after 24 hours were blind six weeks post-operatively.ConclusionThe prevalence of eye emergency surgical procedures was high with over 4/5th of these patients becoming blind six weeks post-operatively. Some of the factors responsible for poor visual outcome were delayed presentation, pre-operative visual acuity and delayed surgical intervention.

Availability and adequacy of resources in an organisation go a long way in achieving specific goals and objectives. The utilisation of these resources is also very germane. This paper dealt with required resources in Vocational Technical Education, its availability and adequacy. The major resources which were identified and researched into are utilisation of space and physical resources in Vocational and Technical Education in selected Collages of Education in South West Nigeria. Descriptive research of the survey type was used with 1,040 subjects. The subjects were selected using stratified, purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Questionnaire and inventory were the instruments used for this study. Recommendations were made based on the findings and conclusion of the study.

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.