Eye injuries in children: the current picture

Abstract

Aims-To investigate the current causes and outcomes of paediatric ocular trauma. Methods-A prospective observational study of all children admitted to hospital with ocular trauma in Scotland over a 1 year period. Results-The commonest mechanism of injury was blunt trauma, accounting for 65% of the total. 60% of the patients were admitted with a hyphaema. Injuries necessitating admission occurred most frequently at home (51%). Sporting activities were the commonest cause of injury in the 5-14 age group. There were no injuries caused by road traYc accidents or fireworks. Patients were admitted to hospital for a mean of 4.2 days (range 1-25 days). One (1%) child had an acuity in the "visually impaired" range (6/18-6/60) and one (1%) was "blind" (6/60) in the aVected eye. No child was bilaterally blinded by injury and none required blind or partial sight registration. Conclusion-This study has shown that the incidence of eye injuries aVecting children has fallen. The outcome of ocular trauma has improved significantly, and for the first time paediatric injuries appear to have a better prognosis than injuries aVecting adults. (Br J Ophthalmol 1999;83:933-936)

Childhood Ocular Trauma –Epidemiology and the Visual Outcome in A Tertiary Care Centre in Eastern India

“…The high incidence, in boys, in this study is consistent with finding of most other studies [2][10] [14][15][16][17][18][19] .…”

“…And 55.5% of ocular injuries were avoidable. Ocular injuries during outdoor activity like sports accounts for 60.3%, where as domestic activity accounts only 39.7% which was consistent with the study by Narang S et al [21] but different from other studies [2][12] [16,17] [22,23] .…”

“…Children are most frequently injured at home by common and innocuous objects [2] . Penetrating injury involving the posterior segment of the eye has a poorer prognosis as compared to blunt injury.…”

Sports related ocular injuries

“…The incidence of ocular injuries in sports is far more commonly seen in children. [3][4][5][6] In our country though no study has been carried out to assess the incidence of sports related ocular injuries, however, the available literature reveals a similar picture where playing sports was responsible for nearly 37-52% of ocular injuries mainly affecting young children in 58-70% of cases, 7,8 These injuries are also seen commonly in the military personnel as games are an integral part of their daily routines. In fact playing outdoor games are highly encouraged in the forces.…”

Traumatic Hyphema Frequency and Management Evaluation: A Retrospective Study

“…Blunt eye injuries mostly result in traumatic hyphema and are not an infrequent cause of presentation to the emergency unit of many eye clinics. Most result from unnecessary eye injuries, which are largely preventable [2][3][4][5][6][7][8].…”