Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: Epidemiologic features of orbital cellulitis have changed drastically since the advent of the Haemophilus influenzae B (Hib) vaccine. This vaccine was first introduced in 1985, and was extended in 1990 to children of at least 2 months of age. This retrospective case series reports a compartive incidence of this disease entity in california between the years 1990 to 2000, and compares the change in the incidence of orbital cellulitis in the white, black and hispanic populations in California, among the pediatric and adult populations. Methods: Age-adjusted and age-specific rates of hospital admissions for orbital cellulitis were determined from the California Hospital Discharge Database (CHDD). CHDD is under the administration of the California Health Facilities Commision, and maintins records of all hospital patient discharges from acute care hospitals in the state. A comparison of the incidence of orbital cellulitis was obtained in the white versus the black and hispanic populations, and among varying age groups comparing the pediatric and adult populations between the years 1990 and 2000. Results: The annual age-adjusted rates of orbital cellulitis in the state of California were 6.24 per a population of 100000 in 1990 compared to 3.51 per 100000 in 2000. In 1990, the incidence of orbital cellulitis was 7.0/100000 in males, versus 5.4/100000 in females. In 2000, there was an incidence of 3.9 versus 3.2/100000 in males and females, respectively. Whites, blacks, and hispanics had incidences of 6.5, 10.2, and 5.5/100000 in 1990, compared to 3.5, 6.1, and 3.2/100000 in 2000. Age-specific rates for ages 0-1, 1-4, 5-24, 25-44, 45-64, and greater than age 65 years are as follows for the year 1990, respectively: 65.2, 29.4, 4.3, 2.6, 2.8, and 4.7. The same data for the year 2000 was 17.8, 10.7, 3.1, 1.6, 2.4, and 5.8. Conclusions: A comparison of the incidence of orbital cellulitis in California between 1990 and 2000 reveals an approximate reduction of 44% when the total population is considered. The Black population suffers most from this devastating disease entity, and has seen the least decline in incidence (40%), compared to that of the white (47%), versus the Hispanic (42%) population. Age-specific data reveal that the population which benefited most from decrease in admissions, were those between the ages of 0-1 year of age (73% decrease) and 1-4 years of age (64%).
Keywords: orbit • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: pre