A 5 year retrospective case study of penetrating ocular trauma at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi.

Ocular Trauma is an important cause of monocular visual impairment and blindness in younger age groups. We examined the cases of hospitalized ocular trauma from 1st January, 1985 through 30th July, 1990 using hospital medical records. The study comprised 27 patients (28 eyes), 51.8% of whom were under 16. The male-female ratio was 2.8:1. Right eye was more commonly involved (66.6%) and one patient had bilateral ruptured globes. Children at play were most vulnerable (33.3%) followed by road accidents which was the major cause (29.6%) in adults. Sixteen (64.0%) eyes suffered some complications and their mean duration of presentation after injury was 28.4 hours. Traumatic cataract was the most common complication (50.0%) in this group, followed by vitreous haemorrhage (37.5%). Nine (36%) ocular injuries did not develop any complications and presented 14 hours (average) after injury. Most of the patients retained their vision on follow-up examination, but 16.0% lost their vision completely. Another 3 eyes had to be enucleated due to severe trauma and loss of vision.