Pediatric Penetrating Eye Injuries at Assiut University Hospital, Assiut, Egypt

Introduction: Ocular trauma can be a devastating injury, causing disability for a lifetime in children. Ocular trauma is an important cause of morbidity and can cause unilateral blindness in children. Pediatric eye injuries account for approximately 8-14% of total injuries in children.

Aim: This prospective study aims to identify pattern, severity, causes, management, and outcome of penetrating eye traumas among study cases.

Subjects and Methods: The current study is an observational, analytic, follow-up, hospital-based study included 64 children aged less than 18 years who presented with penetrating eye injuries seeking health care at Ophthalmology Department, Assiut University Hospitals. The study conducted during a period extended from beginning of July 2016 to end of June 2017.

The study concluded that male subjects comprised 70.3%, of study cases, compared with 29.7% for female ones, rural patients comprised vast majority of cases (85.9%), hitting eye with an object was the most common cause of eye injuries among study children, (62.5%), home accidents comprised more than one-half of total study cases (52.1%), 81. 3% of cases sought care within 24 hours since occurrence of accidents. Regarding the pattern of eye trauma contracted by the study cases, results documented that perforating injuries comprised 46.9%, then penetrating injuries 31.3%, then ruptured globe comprised 12.5%, and lastly intra ocular foreign body (IOFB) comprised 9.4% of total cases. Concerning the outcome of the study cases, which measured by VA, it is concluded that 49.0% vs 51.0% improved and not improved respectively.

Study Limitations:

Only 51 cases out of the total 64 study cases were subjected to visual acuity (VA) measurement as an indicator for vision improvement of the traumatized cases recruited in the current study. The other 13 cases which had no VA measurement, were too young (≤ 3 years), or uncooperative, so, they gave unreliable responses, hence, they were excluded from this assessment.
Some cases didn’t follow the researcher’s instructions regarding the optimal number of follow-up visits.
Statistical Analysis: The collected data had been revised and coded before data entry. Then the revised data was saved in the computer via using both EXCEL-2016 & SPSS "Version 19" programs. Then, data cleaning occurred, then the data was subjected to data analysis which included descriptive analysis in the form of frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations (SD), as well as cross-tabulation between independent and dependent variables. Chi-square test and Fisher Exact test were used to compare qualitative variables. Paired samples t-test was used to compare quantitative variables between pre-test and post-test. A P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The study results were illustrated in tables and figures as shown in the results section.