title: Etiology and severity of various forms of ocular war injuries in patients presenting at an Army Hospital in Pakistan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the etiology and severity of various forms of ocular war injuries in patients presenting at an Army Hospital in Pakistan.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross sectional study was conducted at the Department of Ophthalmology, Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar over four years period from June 2012 through March 2016, Two hundred ten consecutive soldiers who presented with ocular war injuries were included for analysis after taking written informed consent. A predesigned proforma was used to record patient's demographic details along with the cause, side, type and severity of injury, ocular trauma score was also recorded at presentation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the patients was 29.34±5.35 years. All of them were males. Left side was more frequently involved (n=126, 60.0%) and the most frequent underlying cause was IED blast injury (n=114, 54.3%). Closed globe injuries were more frequent and were recorded in 120 (57.1%) patients. Upon assigning Ocular Trauma Score, Grade-V (28.6%) injuries were the most frequent followed by Grade-I (25.7%), Grade III (25.7%), Grade II (11.4%) and Grade IV (8.6%). When stratified for the type of injury, OTS Grade I injuries were highest (60.0%) among patients with open globe injuries, hence poorer prognosis, while OTS Grade V injuries were highest (50.0%) among patients with closed globe injuries (p=0.000).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  IED blast injuries are most frequently encountered ocular war injuries often involving soldiers in the age group 20-30 years. These open globe injuries had worst clinical presentation to begin with and poorer prognosis than closed globe injuries.
authors.affiliation: Dr. Syed Abid Hassan Naqvi, FCPS, Department of Ophthalmology, Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Syed Abid
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Hassan Naqvi
authors.affiliation: Dr. Sidra Malik, FCPS, Department of Ophthalmology, Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sidra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.affiliation: Dr. Syed Zulfiqaruddin, FCPS, Department of Ophthalmology, Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Syed
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zulfiqaruddin
authors.affiliation: Dr. Syeda Birjees Anwar, FCPS. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Syeda Birjees
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Anwar
authors.affiliation: Dr. Shahzad Nayyar, Dept. of ENT & Head and Neck Surgery, Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Shahzad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nayyar
keywords: Closed Globe; Ocular Trauma Score; Ocular War Injuries; Open Globe