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21st Annual Meeting of the German Retina Society and 8th Symposium of the International Society of Ocular Trauma (ISOT)

German Retina Society
International Society of Ocular Trauma

19.06. - 22.06.2008, Würzburg

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Trends of ocular injury in the South East of Ireland

Meeting Abstract

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  • Ayman Saeed - Waterford/Ireland
  • I. Khan - Waterford/Ireland
  • O. Dunne - Waterford/Ireland
  • J. Stack - Waterford/Ireland
  • S. Beatty - Waterford/Ireland

Retinologische Gesellschaft. International Society of Ocular Trauma. 21. Jahrestagung der Retinologischen Gesellschaft gemeinsam mit dem 8. Symposium der International Society of Ocular Trauma. Würzburg, 19.-22.06.2008. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2008. DocISOTRG2008V002

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/rg2008/08rg002.shtml

Published: June 18, 2008

© 2008 Saeed et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Aim: To investigate whether recent socio-demographic changes and recent health and safety measures have impacted on the trends of ocular trauma in the South East of Ireland.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all cases of ocular trauma admitted to our department between October 2001 and September 2007, and the following data were retrieved: demographic details; mechanism of injury and nature of injury.

Results: During the study period, 517 patients were admitted with ocular trauma. Work-related and home-related activities were the commonest causes of admission, and accounted for 160 (31.8%) and 145 (28.4%) cases, respectively.In 2006/2007, and following the influx of migrant workers from the 10 new EU accession states (EUAS), the incidence of hospitalized ocular injuries per100,000 was 89 in persons from the EUAS versus 18 in those of Irish origin, P =< 0.0001. After adding the offence of not wearing a seat belt to the traffic penalty point system in Ireland, the proportion of RTA-related ocular injuries dropped significantly from 6.7% to 2.4%, P = 0.03.

Conclusion: The inclusion of the offence of not wearing a seat belt in the traffic penalty point system has resulted in a significantly lower proportion of hospitalized ocular injuries attributable to RTA. Also, the demographic profile ofpatients admitted because of ocular trauma has changed over the last 6 years,reflected in an increasing proportion of these injuries in persons from the EUAS. These data will inform healthcare providers, and those involved in developing health and safety guidelines for the workplace.