The clinical profile and causative factors for eyelid lacerations at a tertiary eye care centre in South India

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the clinical profile and the likely causative factors for eyelid lacerations at a tertiary eye care centre in South India. This was done so that the data can be used to identify the most common patterns of injuries, using which effective safety measures can be developed. A retrospective study was done through a review of hospital records of 57 cases of traumatic eyelid lacerations who presented to our centre in the period between Jan 2017 to Jan 2018. The data collected were related to epidemiological factors, causative factors, site of injury, structures involved and association with visual outcome. Of the 57 patients included in our study, 39 were men & 18 were women. The mean age of patients was 17+_ 2.8 years. As far as the location of injury was concerned, 67.32% patients sustained them while outdoors, 10.52% at home, 23.16% at their workplace. The most common mode of injury was by trauma caused accidentally in 36 patients (63.15%), assault in 11 patients (19.29%), falls in 10 patients (17.54%), laceration involving either the punctum or canalicular drainage system were seen in 33.26% patients. Based on the Snellen chart visual acuity of the injured eye/s was as follows: in 54 patients (90.6%), the visual acuity was better than 6/60; while in 3 patients (9.4%), the visual acuity was worse than 6/60.