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Causes of open globe injuries differ by gender
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Open globe injuries tended to be a result of projectile objects in men and falls in women, according to a study.
Lily Koo, MD, and colleagues at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary retrospectively reviewed the charts of 220 patients with open globe injuries to determine causes of the injuries based on gender; 78.6% of the patients were men. The median age for men was 36 years, and the median age for women was 73 years.
Overall, men were more likely to suffer from penetrating injuries (69.9%), while 68.1% of the injuries in women were caused by blunt globe rupture. Projectile objects accounted for a majority of the injuries in men (54.9%) but in only 4.3% of the women. Almost one-third of the projectile injuries in men were work-related, and just under 20% happened during home improvement projects. Falls responsible for globe injuries were more likely in women (55.3%) than in men (8.1%). Men suffered more corneal wounds (46.2%) compared with women (23.4%), while more posterior globe injuries occurred in women (46.8%) compared with men (28.3%).
Three months after sustaining the injury, more women than men still had poor visual acuity.
The study is published in the July issue of The Journal of Trauma: Injury, Infection and Critical Care.