Etiological Findings and Visual Outcomes of Ocular Injuries in Pediatric Patients

Objective: To investigate the demographic characteristics and prognostic factors of 60 pediatric patients who applied to our emergency clinic due to open globe injury (OGI) and were treated and followed up. Methods: The medical records of 69 patients aged 16 years and younger, who were operated for OGI between 2010-2021 and followed up for at least one year, were retrospectively reviewed. The patients’ demographic data, the type, cause and mechanism of injury, wound location and accompanying examination findings at the time of admission, time of admission to the hospital, first and last visual acuities (VA), additional surgeries were collected from the records. Results: The mean age was 11±5 years old. 17.4% were girls and 82.6% were boys. The most common shape of OGI was corneal incision, the most common etiological cause was sharp and penetrating objects (65.1%). Only zone 1 was affected in 87% of the cases, zone 2 in 40.6%, and zone 3 in 13%. Relative afferent pupil defect (RAPD) was present in 37.7% of the cases. Rupture was 5.8%, retinal detachment 8.7%, endophthalmitis 2.9%, perforating injury 4.3%. While VA cannot be evaluated in 7% of the cases at the time of admission, it is 0.1 or less in 60%, 0.1-0.6% in 25.7%. 4.3% had a VA better than 0.6. In the sixth month of follow-up, VA could not be evaluated in 2.9% of the cases, while VA was 0.1 or less in 11.4%, 0.1-0.6 in 25.7%, and better than 0.6 in 60%. Ocular trauma score (OTS) was 74±16 and pediatric ocular trauma score (POTS) was 64±19. OTS was moderately correlated with baseline VA (r=0.687, p