A Study on the Pattern of Ocular Injuries and Their Visual Outcomes Following Road Traffic Accidents

Abstract

Background: Ocular trauma is a major contributor to preventable monocular visual morbidity, which includes blindness and visual impairment. It is the most prevalent cause of unilateral blindness, accounting for unilateral visual loss and blindness worldwide. Thus, the study evaluated ocular injuries resulting from road traffic accidents (RTAs), along with clinical findings and the visual outcomes in affected patients.

Materials and methods: It was a prospective observational study. The study was conducted at the Department of Trauma & Emergency of the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. Overall, 292 patients were enrolled in the study.

Results: The average age of all the included participants was 42 ± 10.5 years. A total of 234 (80.2%) of participants were male. It was discovered that closed-globe injuries had superior visual acuity than open-globe injuries. The majority of affected eyes achieved a best corrected visual acuity of 6/6. Visual acuity between both eyes was found to be highly statistically significant at a p-value less than 0.001.

Conclusion: The study concluded that men experience more trauma in RTAs. Statistically significant results have been observed among participants in terms of visual acuity between the right and left eyes. Various fractures involving the orbital walls were noted.

Keywords: ocular injuries; ocular trauma; road traffic accidents; unilateral blindness; vision acuity; visual outcomes.