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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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War injuries of the eye, results of a ISAAF mission in Northern Afghanistan 2007/2008

Meeting Abstract

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  • Hermann Gümbel - Ulm/Germany
  • P. Schwacha - Ulm/Germany
  • D. Spannagel - Ulm/Germany
  • H. Krueger - Ulm/Germany
  • A. Fackeldey - Ulm/Germany
  • S. Scholtz - Ulm/Germany

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. DocISOTRG2008V051b

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/rg2008/08rg053.shtml

Published: June 18, 2008

© 2008 Gümbel 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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Background: In Afghanistan has experienced war for the last three decades. The Bundeswehr engagement within the ISAAF mission did allow us to look at the prevalence of war injuries in Northern Afghanitan.

Methods: A retrospective study was carried out at the Field Hospital in Camp Marmal near Mazar e Sharif looking at war eye injuries to assess the outcomes of treatment of war eye trauma.

Results: Of 130 patients who attended the outpatient department in Camp Marmal 9 patients (15 eyes) had war ocular trauma due to different weapons and explosive devices. At least we lost two patients due to infections of the lung and burned skin. We found two patients with intraocular foreign bodies and most of the patients experienced from blunt trauma after IED (Innocent explosive device).

Conclusions: War eye injuries were found more often to male soldiers in combat platoons or in civil locals working for the UN or other institutions. The time setting since injury, the quality of first aid in trauma eyes and the lack of vitreoretinal eye care service in Northern Afghanistan did influence the visual outcome of the patients.