Deleepkumar Kozhikkot Velayudhan, Cyriac Kurian Pandarakkalam, Govindan Shobhana, Indu Vadakkoot Padmanabhan
BACKGROUND Ocular injuries are a major cause of worldwide visual impairment and the penetrating injury of eye is one of the major causes of uniocular and rarely binocular blindness. No matter how small such injuries are, never to be considered trivial and always to be treated as surgical emergencies. Aims and Objectives of the study- 1. To study the incidence of penetrating injuries of the eye. 2. To study the percentage of occurrence of different types, their management and resultant visual outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was conducted at The Department of Ophthalmology, Medical College Kottayam from March 2000 to January 2003. Study participants include patients who attended Department of Ophthalmology, Medical College, Kottayam, with penetrating injury of the eye. Detailed History and Examination of eye is done with record of their vision, intraocular pressure, fundus examination, Radiological examination of the orbit and if needed ultrasound scan of eye. All cases which are admitted and given the necessary surgical management and then followed up in the OP for a varying period of 1-3 months. RESULTS In this study majority of patients were males. Higher number of injuries were occurred among 2-10 years and 31-40 years group. Injuries were caused by stick, glass piece, knife, stone and toys etc. As regarding occupation majority of patients were stone tillers working without any protection for their eyes. Left eye preponderance is seen in the study. Main site of injury was cornea, corneoscleral and sclera. In case of corneal wounds those which extended to centre cause much diminution of vision. As regarding the complications, Traumatic cataract stood first. Surgical management was directed towards optimal repair of wounds during primary suturing and prevention of secondary complications. The visual prognosis mainly depends on the initial visual acuity CONCLUSION According to this study, adults of working age group were found to have the highest risk. Males, especially manual labourers involved in stone tilling have the maximum risk. Children while playing are at particular risk. Most injuries are unilateral and anterior segment is commonly affected. The most common complication is traumatic cataract and with posterior segment involvement visual outcome is poor. Prognosis depends upon site of injury, initial visual acuity, Presence of cataract and intra ocular foreign body. Anterior segment injury carries better prognosis than posterior segment injury. Analysis of results showed that majority of patients retained good vision after treatment.
