Soumyadeep Majumdar, Maitrayee Saha
BACKGROUND Post-traumatic blindness is one of the leading causes of blindness apart from cataract and glaucoma in India. Ocular injury leading to corneal opacification, resultant astigmatism and post-traumatic complications i.e. uveitis, glaucoma, vitreous haemorrhage, retinal detachment etc., are the major causes of blindness. In tea-garden population, ocular injury in work-place or during daily activities is mainly attributed to geography and poor visibility of walking road in tea gardens. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this study, 35 patients (n=35) from tea gardens with mechanical ocular injury were included in the first 6 months and they are followed up for next 6 months. Their socio-demographic variables, different factors related to injury and outcome were assessed clinically and by appropriate imaging technique. Outcome was tabulated and using SPSS Version 20, statistical calculations were performed. RESULTS In this study, 35 patients (n=35) from tea garden with mechanical ocular injury were included, with mean age 28.2 years and S.D. of 5.661. Majority were male (n=29, 82.9%) and 1 patient was having bilateral injury. The type of intra-ocular injury is mainly globe rupture (n=22, 62.9%). Wood and stone are the common offending agents (n=16, 45.7%) and major injuries occurred due to fall during work in the garden (n=20. 57.1%). In case of injury with wood, the development of endophthalmitis is significant (p=0.016) compared to the other. Due to small sample size, though statistical significance is not very evident, ocular trauma score, offending agents and type of intraocular injury are the predictors of final visual outcome. CONCLUSION In tea garden population, ocular trauma is one of the common health hazards mainly due to geographic pattern in tea garden and work environment. Appropriate assessment, ocular trauma score calculation and treatment are necessary for the better outcome.
