Purpose:

To evaluate the course of the disease, the frequency of other associated eye inju-ries and their effects on visual prognosis in patients with hyphema caused by blunt globe trauma without perforation.

Materials and Methods:

The records of 590 patients referred to Istanbul University, Istan-bul Faculty of Medicine, Department of Ophtalmology between 1993-2005, who had been diag-nosed as hyphema due to blunt trauma, were retrospectively examined.

Results:

The mean age of 590 patients was 22.3 ± 12.3 years. The percentage of hyphema grading in patients was as follows: Grade 0 in 22.7% patients (n=134), Grade I in 46.1% (n= 272), Grade II in 18.4% (n=109), Grade III in 7.1% (n=42), and Grade IV in 5.5% (n=33). Whi-le the final visual acuity was over 0.3 in 535 patients (90.7%), it was 0.3 in the remaining 55 patients (9.3%). When the initial and the final visual acuity of all the patients were compared, a significant increase in visual acuity of the patients was determined (p=0.003). The intraocular pressure was increased over 22mmHg during the follow-up of in 131 patients (22.2%). While the intraocular pressure increase was found to be 90.9% in Grade IV patients, it was only 4.5% in Grade 0 patients.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, young men constitute the majority of patients with traumatic hyphema. Visual prognosis is favorable in most patients with hyphema due to blunt trauma, po-or visual outcome is associated with complications such as; corneal bloodstaining, traumatic ca-taract, choroidal rupture, retroorbital hematoma, and orbital fracture.

Keywords: Traumatic hyphema, traumatic glaucoma, corneal bloodstaining, blunt globe trauma