Purpose:

To evaluate the demographic features, risk factors, long term results in penetrating eye injury (PEI) cases and identify the prognostic factors of visual outcome.

Method:

Records of cases with PEI who underwent primary surgical repair in our clinic between May 2002-May 2008 evaluated retrospectively. Demographic features, details about injury, information about anatomical and functional status of eye which were obtained from initial examination and surgical records, details of initial treatment and subsequent surgical procedures were analysed by descriptive statistics. Moreover chi squared, Fischer exact chi squared and discriminant analysis were performed to determine predictors of visual outcome.

Results:

Total of 129 cases met the inclusion/ exclusion criteria of which 106 (82.2%) male and 23 (17.8%) female were evaluated. The mean age was 33.7±19.3 years (5-80 years) and the mean follow up period was 15.9 ±10.8 months (6-76 months). The factors associated with visual outcomes included: initial visual acuity, lenght and configuration of lesion, presence of lenticular damage, uveal tissue prolapse, vitreous hemorrhage (VH), retinal detachment (RD), intra ocular foreing body, number of recurrent surgeries. Among these, using discriminant analysis; initial visual acuity, presence of VH or RD and number of subsequent surgeries were found to be the predictors of final visual outcome. Mechanisim of injury, location of laceration, the elapsed time between the injury and surgery, presence of hyphema and anterior chamber reaction were not statistically associated with visual prognosis.

Conclusion:

Assessment of prognostic factors at the time of presentation of a PEI, enables realistic prediction of visual outcome and management strategies. In this study several factors were identified that may aid the clinician predict the final visual outcome.

Keywords: Penetrating eye injury, demography, prognostic factors, visual outcome