English

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To study the type and severity of ocular injuries in gun pellet victims. METHODOLOGY: It was a retrospective case series. The study was conducted in the department of Ophthalmology, SKIMC Medical College Bemina Srinagar. The study included gun pellet victims admitted in our department between January 2010 to September 2013. RESULTS: Total number of patients were 20 with 19 males and 1 female. Mean age of the subjects was 21.45 years. Ocular injury was unilateral in 17 cases and bilateral in 3 cases. The most common type of injuries encountered were hyphaema in 82.60% of eyes, followed by corneoscleral tear in 78.26% and vitreous hemorrhage in 47.82% of eyes. Out of the 23 eyes, 18 eyes (78.26%) had an open globe injury, while only 3 eyes (13.04%) had closed globe injury at presentation in our hospital. The most commonly performed surgery was corneoscleral repair in 18 eyes. Final corrected visual acuity remained unchanged in 34.78% and improved in 65.22% of eyes. About 47.83% of eyes had final visual acuity < 6/60. CONCLUSION: Gun pellet related ocular injuries are becoming increasingly common in Kashmir valley. In severely injured eyes the visual prognosis remained poor despite development of advanced micro-surgical techniques. The best preventive measure for such injuries involve reducing the level of violence in our society.