Penetrating eye injuries from 2008 to 2017 in the North of Jordan : any change in pattern ?

Abstract EN

Aim: To review penetrating eye injuries of children between 6 and 18 years of age over a 10 year period..

Method: A retrospective study was conducted at Prince Rashid Bin Al Hassan military hospital.

The medical records of all patients aged between 6 and 18 years that suffered penetrating eye injuries and attended the ophthalmology clinic between January 2008 and December 2017 were reviewed.

The age, gender, mechanism of trauma, severity of trauma, eye structures involved and visual outcome were analyzed.

Patients that did attend a follow-up within 6 months after the trauma were excluded from the study.

The collected data were analyzed using Excel software to determine whether there was any significant change in the pattern of eye injuries over the 10 year period in relation to the mentioned issues.

Results: 57 patients (57 eyes) with a mean age of (10.5±3.7 years) were included in the study.

37 of the patients were male (ratio 1.9:1).

The most common place for injury was outdoors at home (63.1%).

A stick was the most common implement involved in the injury (36.8%).

The cornea was the most common eye structure that was affected (78.9%).

11 patients (20%) had severe visual impairment after 6 months.

The incidence of penetrating eye injuries showed a significant decline from 16% in 2008 to 4% in 2017.

The mean visual outcome at 6 months was significantly better in the more recent years (p value <0.05); in 2016 and 2017 the mean BCVA was 0.45 and 0.6 respectively compared to 0.17 and 0.25 in the years 2008 and 2009.

Conclusion: The incidence of penetrating eye injuries and their impact on the visual outcome showed a significant decline over a 10-year period from 2008 to 2017.

There was no significant change in the male to female ratio and mean age during the same period.