Abstract

Background: Eyes are ranked the third most common organ affected by traumatic injuries representing one of the major worldwide causes for acquired unilateral blindness.
Methodology: A cross-sectional, non-interventional study was carried out on children aged 18 years or younger who had been exposed to eye injuries and were attending the emergency or the outpatient clinics of Al-Yamamah hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during the year 2017. The demographic characteristics, details of the injury events, the initial and three months post-injury visual acuity and eye status were investigated.
Results: One hundred and twenty-four children were included in this study. Most of the eye injuries occurred in children aged less than 6 years (42.7%). These included 92 (74.2%) boys and 32 (25.8%) girls. The highest proportion of eye injuries were due to street injuries (41.9%) followed by domestic injuries (26.6%). Open eye globe injuries constituted 35.5% out of total eye injuries, closed eye globe occurred in 64.5%, Chemical injuries constituted 2.4% of all ophthalmological injuries.
Conclusion: This study highlights the importance and need for eye injuries prevention programs among children to avoid injuries during their daily life.

Key words: Eye injuries, unilateral blindness, domestic eye injuries