Purpose:
To measure the visual impact of corneal foreign bodies (FB) secondary to non–penetrating ocular blast injuries.
Methods:
Testing was performed on 13 eyes from 13 subjects with corneal FB from non–penetrating blast injuries. Subjects with corneal or intraocular pathology, posterior segment injury, or prior ocular surgery were excluded. High contrast (100%) visual acuity (HCVA), wavefront analysis, low contrast (5%) visual acuity (LCVA), and small letter contrast sensitivity (SLCT) were measured under photopic, mesopic, and mesopic with glare conditions and compared to a control group of 13 participants without ocular injuries using the independent t–test. A p–value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results:
There was a significant visual decrement in four of the six measured exams: HCVA, and LCVA at all three luminance conditions. Although contrast sensitivity at all three conditions were reduced, and total higher order aberrations were increased in FB eyes compared to non–injured eyes, these differences were not statistically significant (Table 1).
Conclusions:
While 10/13 patients (77%) with corneal FB secondary to blast injuries had HCVA 20/20 or better, retained FB may significantly impact quality of vision, particularly in low light, low contrast settings. Further analysis is necessary to evaluate the long–term consequences of retained corneal FB, and to try and determine the optimal treatment and visual prognosis for such injuries.
Keywords: trauma • visual acuity • contrast sensitivity