Consumer-product related ocular and periocular trauma in Western Australian children

Abstract

 

Purpose

 

Ocular trauma is a leading cause of monocular blindness in children and consumer products are often the cause. Currently there is a paucity of detailed data on how these injuries occur. We performed a retrospective hospital-based study to identify and characterize consumer product-related eye and adnexal injuries in children admitted to Princess Margaret Hospital for Children (PMH) in Perth, Western Australia, from 2002 to 2013.

 

Methods

 

A hospital-based retrospective review of children <18 years of age admitted with ocular and periocular trauma from 2002-2013 was performed. Narrative data were used to assess each case in which a consumer product caused the injury. Demographic data collected, diagnosis, incident location, consumer product category and vision outcomes were analyzed.

 

Results

 

There were 207 consumer product-related admissions representing 42% of the serious ocular and adnexal injuries identified in the 12-year period. Of these, 56% involved children <5 years (mean age 4.54 years, range 1 month to 15 years old) and 67% involved males. More than 60 different products were implicated; with pieces of furniture the most common (50) followed by toys (36), food products or their containers (22) and stationery items (17). Post-injury visual acuity of worse than 6/18 was recorded in 12% of cases. Kitchen utensils and toys were implicated more often in the injuries with poorer visual outcomes.

 

Conclusions

 

This study shows that most consumer product-related children’s eye injuries in Perth occur at home in children <5 years old and are predominantly caused by toys, furniture and household products. We must continue to monitor ocular trauma and work closely with legislative and consumer groups to ensure adequate prevention strategies are identified and adopted.