Clinicoepidemiological study of penetrating ocular injuries and factors affecting visual outcome

Blindness among young adults due to ocular trauma has a huge socioeconomic cost and impact on the lives of such patients and their families. Thus, we evaluate the epidemiology and etiological factors and the factors affecting the outcome in penetrating eye injuries. This one-year descriptive observational study was conducted at the Department of Ophthalmology, Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, involving 50 patients. The Ocular Trauma Score (OTS) was used to estimate final visual acuity. The epidemiological, etiological factors and risk factors were analyzed using the chi-square test with a significance level of 5%. Among the 50 patients, Majority of participants were found to be males (78%). 50% participants were less than 30 years of age, Majority (26%) of participants belonged to the age-group of 10-19 years. Among the participants, we found age and zone of injury are the factors which were significantly associated with the visual outcome of the patients whereas gender, mechanism of injury of the ocular trauma and the time elapsed between injury and primary repair were the factors which were significantly associated with the final structural outcome. A nationwide online database for ocular injuries should be established. Legislation should be implemented to hold employers accountable for providing protective equipment to their employees. The NPCB should incorporate provisions for the physical, mental, social, and vocational rehabilitation of patients affected by ocular trauma.