Paediatric ocular trauma in a tertiary eye care center in Eastern India.

Abstract

A retrospective study was performed to assess the pattern of pediatric ocular trauma in a tertiary eye center in eastern India. Records of 672 patients aged 16 years or less with ocular trauma who attended the outpatient department or emergency or treated as inpatients at a tertiary referral center between April 2009 and March 2010 were reviewed. Boys accounted for 70% cases. Most children were of the 5-10 years age group. Closed globe injury was the commonest (418 patients, 62.19%), followed by open globe injuries (127 patients, 19%), orbital injuries (52 patients, 7.67%), superficial foreign bodies (7.14%) and burn (4.01%). Home was found to be the commonest place of injury (44%), and only 51.9% attended the health facility within 24 h. Conservative management was done in 497 (74%) cases, whereas 175 (26%) cases were treated surgically. Final visual outcome of 443 (66%) patients were between 20/20 and 20/50. Sixty-eight patients had worst visual outcome with monocular blindness of the injured eye. Strategies to reduce the incidence of ocular trauma at home should be directed towards raising the parental education and public awareness.