Abstract

Background:Ocular trauma is a preventable public health issue that is the leading cause of blindness in children, ophthalmic morbidity, and monocular blindness worldwide. Knowledge about the pattern of ocular trauma and its causes is required to identify the public health burden, in planning prevention of ocular injuries & readiness for treatment modalities regarding ocular trauma. Present study was aimed to study clinical profile patients presenting with ocular trauma at a tertiary care center. Material and Methods: Present study was single-center, prospective, observational study, conducted patients presented with acute eye injuries at the outpatient or emergency OPD. Results: During study period 148 patients with ocular injury were included in this study. Majority patients were from < 20 years (43.92 %), were Male (62.84 %), had injury during domestic/agricultural work (29.05 %) & road traffic accident (20.95 %), were presented to hospital within 24 hours (68.24 %). Mean age was 31.35 ± 11.48 years. Common type of injurieswere closed globe injury (91.22 %).  Common causative agent for ocular trauma were foreign bodies (26.35 %), wooden particles (22.97 %), road traffic accidents (20.95 %), metallic objects (metallic, rods, wire) (6.08 %), stones (4.73 %) & fire crackers (4.05 %). Ocular structures involved in injuries were cornea (60.14 %), conjunctiva (28.38 %), lids (25 %), iris (sphincteric tear, iridodialysis, traumatic mydriasis) (18.24 %), hyphema (14.19 %) & lens (traumatic cataract, extrusion of lens, phacodonesis) (10.14 %). Majority patients had normal vision after treatment (59.46 %) as compared to vision at presentation (45.95 %). Vision < 3/60 was noted in 15 patients (10.14 %) at presentation while after treatment only 6 patients had vision < 3/60. Conclusion: The incidence of ocular trauma can be decreased by the proper use of safety devices like protective goggles or shields, face masks etc. during work.