Epidemiological pattern of ocular trauma in a tertiary hospital of northern India

Introduction: Ocular trauma is one of the major public health issues. More than 2.5 million ocularinjuries occur in the United States every year andout of whom about 50,000 lose part or all of their vision on permanent basis and this incidence is even higher in developing countries. The rates at which patients withocular trauma need hospitalizationrange from 4.9 to 89 per 100,000. This study was conducted to determine the epidemiological pattern of ocular trauma and various factors influencing it. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in our hospital between January2015 to January2016 and all the patients presented with ocular trauma in eye outpatient department and emergency were enrolled in the study. Various epidemiological parameters like age, sex distribution, duration of presentation, mode of injury, type of injury and final visual outcome was analysed. Results: Of total 253 of patients, 139(54.9%)were below the age of25 yearsand male to female ratio was3.5:1. About 132(52.2%) of the patients presented to hospital within 24hrs of trauma. The causes of ocular trauma included Road traffic accidents87 cases (34%), sports related and recreational 75(29.7%), occupation related 51(20.1%), domestic accidents 24(9.4%) and violence related 16(6.3%). Among the type of injuries Open globe injuries accounted for 184 cases (72.7%) and 69 patients (27.3%) suffered closed globe injuries. Delay in presentation was associated with poor visual outcome.