Prevalence of Eye Injury in Mukdaharn Hospital

Abstract

Background and Objective:  Incidents involving eye injury are the main causes for vision loss. The study incidence of eye injury and the associated factors will lead to know about situation of the risk.  This will lead to the prevention of eye injury in the future. The purpose was to study incidents, risk factors which (epidemiologic characteristics of eye injury, factors associated with) increase the severity of injury, and the outcome of treatment of eye injuries at Mukdahan  hospital.

Method:  This was a descriptive, retrospective study reviewing medical records of 492 patients with 524 eye injuries who were treated at Mukdahan hospital between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2015.  The data were generally analysed by percentage and significance of risks determined using Chi-square test.

Results:  Most of the patients were males (67.48%) aged between 41-50 (24.29%)  years old, 58.13% were farmers and 59.55% had work related accidents.  39.02% sought medical attention within 24 hours and 70.73% were treated as outpatients.  The outcome of treatment revealed that 88.01% had good vision. Risk factors affecting the injured eye. Severity of the injury included gender, cause of the accident, length of time between injury and treatment.  The factors which determine the results were occupations, the causes of the accident, and types of patients.

Conclusion:  Eye injury was a common occurrence in males and laborers in hazardous occupations.  Because occupational hazards were the major causes of eye injury, use of appropriate protective eye equipments for this group will reduce the incidence and severity of eye injuries, in the future.