Clinical profile and visual outcome of pediatric ocular trauma in a tertiary care hospital in Goa

Abstract

Introduction: Ocular trauma accounts for 8-14% of all the injuries in the pediatric age group, which if managed with timely intervention helps avert permanent visual disability. There are many such studies done in other Indian states which have studied the profile of ocular injuries in that area; however such a study was lacking in Goa. Hence this study was conducted to study the clinical profile and visual outcome of pediatric ocular trauma at a tertiary care hospital in Goa. Materials and Methods: A retrospective case-series hospital based study was conducted at the Goa Medical College and Hospital, after Institutional Ethics Committee approval. The medical case records of patients in the pediatric age group, who were admitted in the hospital with ocular injuries during the period between January 2015-December 2017 were reviewed and analyzed. All the relevant data was entered in pre-tested structured proforma. Results: there were 52 cases of ocular trauma among children during the 3 year period. 55.76% were in the age group between 5-10 years, 63.46% were males. 65.38% were from the rural areas. 61.53% had sustained injuries at home. 40.38% had presented to the tertiary care hospital beyond 24hours since the injury. The most commonly encountered injuries were open globe injuries 30 (57.69%), followed by closed globe injuries 19 (36.53%) and chemical injuries 3 (5.76%). 73.07% had a presenting Snellen’s visual acuity worse than 6/60, while at discharge 53.84% had a visual acuity between 6/18-6/60, 42.30% better than 6/18 and 3.84% had visual acuity worse than 6/60. Conclusion: Good parental supervision and immediate medical care in case of ocular injuries is of utmost importance to reduce childhood blindness due to ocular trauma. Keywords: Goa, Ocular trauma, Pediatric.