Penetrating eye injuries mostly occur while children are at home, unsupervised

Penetrating eye injuries mostly occurred when children were at play, according to a study of South African children.

M.C. Grieshaber and Robert Stegmann, MD, prospectively evaluated 100 consecutive patients in South Africa aged 16 years and younger, who underwent surgery for penetrating eye injuries between January 2001 and November 2002.

They found that 66% of the children were injured while at play. They also reported 55% of the penetrating eye injuries occurred while the patients were at home, and that all injuries to children aged 6 years and younger occurred at home. Eighty-five percent of injuries occurred when a caregiver was absent, the researchers said.

Impact with a sharp object was the most common method of injury. Sticks, wire and glass caused 48% of the injuries, they said in the study.

“Effective prevention should stress parental awareness, careful supervision, greater home safety, safe toys and avoidance of hazardous games,” the researchers wrote.

Drs. Grieshaber and Stegmann reported that 25% of the injured children presented to the hospital within 24 hours of injury, noting that younger patients and those with more severe injuries presented the earliest.

According to the study, 71% of patients regained best-corrected visual acuity of 20/200 or better, and 51% regained 20/40 or better. The researchers said wound size greater than 11 mm, mixed corneoscleral wounding and lens and posterior segment involvement in the injury were indicators of poor visual outcome. Age and delayed hospital presentation were not indicative of visual outcome.

This study appeared in Eye.