Abstract
Purpose :
Ocular injury is often associated with significant morbidity. Nationally, eye injury is second only to cataracts as a leading cause of significant visual impairment and is the most common cause of monocular blindness in the United States. The aim of this study was to evaluate the patterns, incidence, and severity of ocular trauma at an inner-city level I trauma center in Chicago.
Methods :
A retrospective chart review of ocular trauma presenting between 2012-2017 at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, an inner-city level I trauma center in Chicago, was performed. Patients were included if they presented with a head or neck injury and ICD/CPT code associated with ocular trauma. Age, sex, type of trauma, laterality, and best corrected visual acuity at final follow-up were collected.
Results :
About 950 patients were identified, however, subanalyses only included patients with relevant data extractable for each respective category. Of 348 patients with recorded type of trauma, 66.4% (231 patients) were due to assault, 16.1% (56 patients) due to a fall, 14.1% (49 patients) due to motor vehicle accident (MVA), and 3.5% due to other type of trauma. The average age by type of trauma was 38.2 years (SD 16.0) for assault, 51.9 years (SD 18.3) for falls, and 36.9 years (SD 17.9) for MVA’s. About 84% of all traumas were associated with male sex. More specifically, 87.4% of assaults, 78.6% of falls, and 67.3% of MVA’s were associated with male sex. Trauma associated with both assault and MVA’s more commonly involved the left eye, whereas falls more commonly involved the right eye. Fifty percent of falls, 42.9% of MVA’s, and 29.4% of assaults were associated with visual acuity worse than 20/200.
Conclusions :
Most commonly, ocular trauma presenting to the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, an inner-city Level 1 trauma center in Chicago, is due to an assault, associated with male sex, and involves the left eye. Falls are associated with the worse visual acuity outcome. An understanding of the epidemiology and outcomes of ocular trauma provides an opportunity for trauma prevention by mechanism, appropriate triaging and subspecialty consultation, and patient education.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.