household ocular injuries: a case series

purpose: to determine the nature and types of household eye injuries. methods: we prospectively analyzed data from 100 consecutive patients with household eye injuries (104 eyes) referred to emergency room of farabi eye hospital during october 2003. standardized international classification of ocular trauma (birmingham eye trauma terminology) was used for classification. results: household ocular trauma represented 4.85% of all ocular emergencies (2061 patients) referred to the emergency room during that period. male to female ratio was 1.13 and mean age was 26±18 years (range, 1-73). the cornea was involved in 50.0% and the sclera, lens, and retina each was involved in 4.8%. there was severe visual loss (best-corrected distance visual acuity < 20/200 due to trauma) in 4% of the patients. the most frequent household ocular injury was globe injury (93.7%) including mechanical (72.1% closed and 4.8% open), chemical (14.4%) and thermal (1.9%) injuries. conclusion: closed mechanical injuries were the most common type of household ocular injury in our series. considering the high rate of household eye trauma, more effective preventive measures should be taken at home.