Eye injuries in the U.S. Armed Forces.
OBJECTIVE
To develop prevention and treatment modalities for eye injuries, ophthalmologists require epidemiological data on the various types of eye injuries. This study sought to define eye injury patterns in the U.S. armed forces.


METHODS
Data on patterns of eye injury in the armed forces were obtained through voluntary reporting by U.S. military ophthalmologists throughout the world. The reporting format was standardized with the U.S. Eye Injury Registry initial and follow-up report forms. The data were analyzed for significant injury patterns.


RESULTS
Data on 112 patients were submitted, representing a broad range of the military population. Data on a total of 96 patients with a 6-month follow-up were analyzed in this study. Immediately after injury, 43% of the patients were noted to have poor vision (worse than 20/200). After treatment, only 20% were noted to have poor vision. Patients lost an average of 21.6 days of work after a severe eye injury.


CONCLUSIONS
An eye injury is a traumatic and potentially debilitating event. The loss of visual acuity can be drastic, resulting in an extensive recovery period.
Lau
J J
JJ
Department of Surgery, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
Thach
A B
AB
Burden
J H
JH
Ward
T P
TP
Hshieh
P B
PB
Hollifield
R D
RD
D000041:Absenteeism; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005131:Eye Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008887:Military Medicine; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009885:Ophthalmology; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012042:Registries; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014792:Visual Acuity