Demographic and etiologic characteristics of children with traumatic serious hyphema.

BACKGROUND We aimed to evaluate the etiologic factors, complications, follow-up, and treatment outcomes in serious hyphema following blunt ocular trauma in childhood. METHODS The medical records of 136 patients diagnosed as grade 3 or 4 hyphema due to blunt ocular trauma between January 2006 and December 2011 were evaluated. Visual acuity (VA), complications, and medical and surgical treatments were analyzed. Factors affecting visual prognosis were compared in grade 3 and 4 hyphema cases. RESULTS The mean age of patients was 9.7±4 years. Etiologic factors for trauma were stone in 53 (39%), bead bullet in 25 (18.4%) and others in 58 (42.6%) patients. The most common complication of grade 3 and 4 hyphema was traumatic mydriasis (19.1%), followed by cataract (9.6%) and glaucoma (5.1%). Medical treatment was successful in 114 (83.8%) patients, and 22 (16.2%) patients underwent surgery. Mean initial and final VA of grade 4 patients were found to be significantly lower than those of grade 3 patients. CONCLUSION In grade 3 and 4 hyphema due to blunt trauma, visual prognosis worsened in the presence of additional ocular pathologies. Considering the bad visual prognosis of severe hyphema patients, prompt treatment and close follow-up may prevent complications resulting in poor VA.