Epidemiological study of eye injuries in Brazilian children
C. A. Moreira Jr, M. Debert-Ribeiro and R. Belfort Jr
Department of Ophthalmology, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
A year-long follow-up study of 146 eye injuries in children up to 15 years
of age was carried out in two emergency hospitals of a southern Brazilian
city. These injuries represent approximately 65% of the total number of
patients seeking ophthalmic care at emergency hospitals within this city.
Patients were followed up for at least four months after injury; visual
results as well as epidemiological factors were analyzed. Based on these
findings, children in the 0- to 5-year-old group were at greatest risk,
regardless of sex; among children older than 5 years, eye injuries were
more frequent in boys. Generally, the child takes part in the accident as
an active participant, and adequate adult supervision decreases the number
of these accidents. Analysis of the relationship between socioeconomic
levels of the parents and severity of eye injuries revealed that severe eye
injuries were more frequent in lower socioeconomic strata. In severe eye
injuries 35.1% of the children ended with visual acuity under 20/200 in the
affected eye, which corresponds to 9% of all studied eye injuries.
