Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to elucidate the national incidence of eye injuries in automobile crashes and to investigate contributing occupant and vehicle characteristics. Methods: In order to remove the inaccuracy associated with small case study projections, the National Automotive Sampling System database files from 1993 to 2000 were examined. The study included an investigation of 25,131 individual crashes that occurred in the United States over the eight year period. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi square test of independence for survey data. Results: For occupants exposed to an airbag deployment, 3.1% sustained an eye injury. In contrast, for occupants not exposed to an airbag deployment, 2.0% sustained an eye injury. Although these rates are not significantly different (p=0.15), a closer examination of the type of eye injuries showed that there is a statistically significant (p=0.03) increase in the risk of corneal abrasions for occupants that were exposed to an airbag (0.53%) compared to those who were not (0.04%). With respect to severe eye injuries and occupant age, those 66 years old and greater sustained an increased risk (1.24%) in comparison to age groups of 16–35 years old (0.73%) and 36–65 years old (0.58%) (p=0.04). The type of airbag was a significant indicator of risk with full power airbag exposure resulting in 3.7% eye injury rate compared to 1.7% of the occupants exposed to a depowered airbag (p=0.04). Conclusions: Using 25,131 separate cases, this study illustrates the significant increase in risk of eye injury given airbag exposure. Moreover, older occupants are at a higher risk compared to younger occupants. However, it appears that the implementation of depowered airbags in 1998 has had a side effect of reducing the risk of eye injury.
Keywords: trauma • cornea: epithelium • pathology: human