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.

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.

Institutions for deaf children should be aware of the high prevalence of ophthalmic disorders and the importance of vision to development of a deaf child, and conduct an initial and periodic eye examination for every intake.

Abstract

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.

BACKGROUND: Blind children and young adults have to overcome a lifetime of emotional, social and economic difficulties. They employ non-vision dependent methods for education. OBJECTIVE: To assess the causes of blindness in a special school in southwestern Nigeria to aid the development of efficient blindness prevention programmes. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of the Ekiti State Special Education School, Nigeria was conducted in May-June 2008 after approval from the Ministry of Education. All students in the blind section were examined for visual acuity, pen-torch eye examination and dilated fundoscopy in addition to taking biodata and history. RESULTS: Thirty blind students with mean age of 18±7.3 years and male: female ratio of 1.7:1 were examined. Blindness resulted commonly from cataract eight (26.7%), glaucoma six (20%) retinitis pigmentosa four (16.7%) and posttraumatic phthysis bulbi two (6.7%). Blindness was avoidable in 18 (61%) of cases. Glaucoma blindness was associated with redness, pain, lacrimation and photophobia in 15 (50%) and hyphaema in 16.7% of students; none of these students were on any medication at the time of study. CONCLUSION: The causes of blindness in rehabilitation school for the blind are largely avoidable and glaucoma-blind pupils face additional painful eye related morbidity during rehabilitation. While preventive measures and early intervention are needful against childhood cataract and glaucoma, regular ophthalmic consultations and medications are needed especially for glaucoma blind pupils. WAJM 2011; 30(1): 47-50.

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.

Background: Refractive error is one of the eye disorders with the capability of causing visual impairment. We needed to know the various types and proportion of refractive errors seen in patients attending an eye clinic at the tertiary health centre.Aim: An observational study was carried out to determine the profile of refractive error in a southwestern Nigeria hospital.Methods: All new cases with the diagnosis of refractive error between January 2015 and December 2016 had autorefraction and subjective refraction to determine the types and values of refractive error. Data were analysed with SPSS 20. Statistical significance was inferred at p < 0.05.Results: Refractive error constituted 618 (21.4%) of the total new cases. The mean age was 39.3 ± 22.96 years. The male to female ratio was 1:1.8. Children constituted 25.7% of all the cases. The most common refractive error was myopia in 64.3%. A total of 312 (50.5%) patients had other co-existing ocular disorders with allergic conjunctivitis on the top of the list. The number of visually impaired reduced to 70 (5.64%) after the correction of existing refractive error with about 94.1% having their visual acuity restored to normal.Conclusion: Refractive error was a common eye disorder among our patients with the proportion of children about a quarter of all patients. We recommend that childhood refractive errors should be given prioritised attention in eye outreach programmes.