Abstract
Purpose :
The epidemiology of basketball-related eye injuries is not well described. We described trends in the yearly number of Emergency Department (ED) visits for basketball-related eye injuries in the United States (US) and characterized the types and mechanisms of eye injuries observed using the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database.
Methods :
The NEISS database is a probability sample of 100 US hospitals with 24-hour EDs and for a given period can provide national estimates of number of ED visits for a consumer product-associated injury for the greater than 5,000 US EDs. The authors queried for all basketball-related injuries (Product Code: 1205) of the eyeball (Body Part Code: 77) from the NEISS database from 2012 through 2021. The coded data and case narrative were reviewed for each patient to determine the diagnosis and mechanism of injury. Yearly national estimates for basketball-related eye injuries produced by the NEISS algorithm were analyzed using simple linear regression modeling on GraphPad Prism. P-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Results :
A total of 1570 basketball-related eye injuries were included for analysis. Per the NEISS algorithm, this extrapolated to 46,793 (95% CI: 37,654 - 55,933) total basketball-related eye injuries. The estimated number of yearly ED visits for basketball-related eye injuries in the US decreased by 54.1% from 2012 through 2021 (β= -333.0, p = 0.0079), largely driven by the decrease (47.2%) in injuries observed from 2019 through 2020. From 2012 through 2019, there was no significant decrease (β= -153.1, p = 0.1967). Most injuries involved males [87.1% (1368/1570)] and children [56.7% (890/1570)]. Corneal abrasions were the most common injuries [children: 49.6% (441/890); adults: 53.7% (365/680)]. The mechanism of injury was provided in 91.6% (1438/1570) of cases. Most injuries were precipitated by physical contact with another player [children: 69.6% (619/890); adults: 79.1% (538/680)].
Conclusions :
The estimated number of yearly ED visits for basketball-related eye injuries in the US decreased significantly from 2012 through 2021; the largest decrease was observed from 2019 through 2020, most likely related to decreased participation in sports due to the pandemic. The injuries mostly affected males and children and were most commonly corneal abrasions, underscoring the importance of using eye protection.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.