Abstract

LOPEZ GONZALEZ, Madelaine et al. Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of infant ocular traumas attended to in the emergency service. Rev Cubana Oftalmol [online]. 2013, vol.26, suppl.1, pp. 583-592. ISSN 0864-2176.

Objective: to describe clinical and epidemiological characteristics of ocular trauma in children. Methods: an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted in 4 917 patients younger than 19 years old, who presented with ocular trauma and were seen at the emergency service of "Ramón Pando Ferrer", Cuban Institute of Ophthalmology from January to December, 2008. Data were taken from the service's register of patients and the analyzed variables were age, sex, type of trauma, most affected eye, number of re-consultations and days and months when the events occurred. Two independent groups were analyzed by using a test to compare means with statistical significance of 95%. Results: traumas represented 28.5% of all the ocular diagnoses. Males were 59.9%, the 5 to 9 years age group predominated (29.4%) and corneal erosion accounted for 45.47% of all the cases. In this study, 80.3% of patients went to the doctor's just once again. Eye trauma was more frequent on weekends and during the academic year months. Conclusions: pediatric ocular traumas account for a significant part of the patients who is attended to in the emergency service. This suggests that the implementation of preventive actions should be extended to protect school children.

Keywords : ocular trauma; children; accidents.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )