Accepted Manuscript Epidemiology of paediatric ocular trauma admissions Lizette Mowatt, MB;BS, MMedSci, FRCS (Ed), FRCOphth

PII:

S0039-6257(14)00035-6

DOI:

10.1016/j.survophthal.2014.02.001

Reference:

SOP 6501

To appear in:

Survey of Ophthalmology

Received Date: 20 October 2013 Accepted Date: 7 February 2014

Please cite this article as: Mowatt L, Epidemiology of paediatric ocular trauma admissions, Survey of Ophthalmology (2014), doi: 10.1016/j.survophthal.2014.02.001. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Epidemiology of paediatric ocular trauma admissions

Letter to the Editor, Dear Sirs,

I read with great interest the very informative and well written literature review on “ The epidemiology

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and etiology of paediatric ocular trauma”1. The authors have given an excellent worldwide view of the epidemiology of trauma, including the hospitalization admissions (Table 1)1 which not only impacts on the children but on the parents, who lose productivity from time off from work. Although 95% of eye injuries don’t require hospitalization3, the child’s admission period as well as their post injury visual

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acuity can assist in highlighting the depth of this serious preventative public health problem.

We are in agreement that paediatric ocular trauma is gender and age specific, and its aetiology varies widely with geographic and cultural differences 1. Although it was a worldwide literature review, I noted

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that no reference was made to the Caribbean. In our paediatric ocular trauma admission study in Jamaica, the only one for the Caribbean, the incidence of paediatric ocular trauma admission was 14.6 per 100 0004. Stones (20%) and sticks (9%) were the most common aetiologic agent in both genders, usually in children >4 years old. Contusions (48.3%) and penetrating injuries (35.9%) were most common. The median hospitalization period varied according to the age and gender of the child, from 3 days (0-3year old group) to 8 days in the 8-11year old group for females 4. The reasons for the

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hospitalization may vary geographically for several reasons from severity of the injury, social reasons, lack of caregiver at home to availability and access to health care as in our study. Hospitalization duration is also important public health information due to the potential psychosocial impact on

REFERENCES:

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children after severe post traumatic ocular morbidity2.

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1) Abbott J, Shah P. The epidemiology and etiology of paediatric ocular trauma. Surv Ophthal. 2013; 58:476-85

2) Alexander DA, Kemp RV, Klein S, et al. Psychiatric sequelae and psychosocial adjustment following ocular trauma: a retrospective pilot study. Br J Ophthalmol. 2001;85(5):560-2 3) May DR, Kuhn FP, Morris RE, et al. The epidemiology of serious eye injuries from the United States Eye Injury Registry. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2000;238 (2):153-7 4) Mowatt L, Mac Donald A, Ferron-Boothe D. Paediatric ocular trauma admission to the University Hospital of the West Indies 2000-2005. West Indian Med J. 2012; 61 (6): 599-640