Open globe injuries in children under 7 years referred to a tertiary center in Iran from 2006 to 2016.

Abstract

Open globe injuries are one of the most common causes of monocular blindness in many countries. The impact of this traumatic event on patients' quality of life and health is considerable. This study describes the characteristics of open globe injury in children younger than 7 years. Six hundred and twenty-two patients were included in this retrospective study. Patients under 7 years with open globe injury were included. Among 622 patients, 403 (64.8%) were male and 219 (35.2%) were female. The type of material that caused the open globe injury was metallic material in 355 (57.1%) cases, wood in 89 (14.3%) cases, glass in 87 (14%) cases, plastic in 30 (4.8%) cases and other materials in 61 (9.8%) cases. The time between the occurrence of ocular trauma to patient admission was <12 hours in 414 (66.6%) patients and between 12 and 24 hours in 101 (16.2%) patients. The time between patient admission to first surgical intervention was <12 hours in 493 (79.3%) patients, between 12 and 24 hours in 88 (14.1%) patients. The rate of traumatic endophthalmitis in our study was 14.3% at presentation. The most common organism was Streptococcus viridans. Traumatic endophthalmitis was significantly related to the male gender, the time between the occurrence of ocular trauma to patient admission, and time between patient admission to first surgical intervention and wooden material (p < 0.001). This study showed that open globe injuries were more prevalent in boys older than four years. The earlier patient's referral was associated with a lower rate of endophthalmitis. The most common cause of traumatic endophthalmitis in pre-school children was S. viridans.