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Juan C. Serrano, MD; Patricia Chalela, MPH; Juan D. Arias, MD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2003;121:1439-1445.

Objective  To describe the epidemiology of ocular trauma in children 15 years and younger who underwent evaluation during a 5-year period in the emergency department of a tertiary referral center in northeastern Colombia.

Methods  We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of children 15 years and younger. Records of 393 children with 415 incidents of eye injury were included in the study, of whom 22 were initially treated for bilateral ocular trauma.

Results  Most patients (64.9%) were boys. The highest proportion of injuries (44.4%) occurred at home, followed by streets and roads (28.6%). Blunt (35.1%) and sharp (22.6%) objects represented the most frequent causes of trauma. Closed-globe injuries were far more frequent than open-globe injuries for boys (82.4% vs 17.6%) and girls (83.8% vs 16.2%). Of those with closed-globe injuries, 253 injuries (80.0%) registered an initial visual acuity of greater than 20/60, whereas 31 open-globe injuries (52.5%) registered an initial visual acuity of less than 20/400. Most closed-globe injuries (223 [92.1%]) did not cause any final visual impairment in the affected eye, whereas 26 open-globe injuries (55.3%) caused severe visual impairment or blindness.

Conclusions  Most of the accidents reported in this study could have been avoided; the data demonstrate a clear need for primary prevention and control measures.

From the Department of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (Dr Serrano), Fundación Oftalmológica de Santander–Clínica Carlos Ardila Lülle (Dr Arias), Bucaramanga, Colombia; and the Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tex (Ms Chalela). The authors have no relevant financial interest in this article.

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