Prognostic factors for vision outcome after surgical repair of open globe injuries

PURPOSE: To evaluate the factors influencing final visual outcome after surgical repair of open globe injuries. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out at a tertiary referral eye care center in Central India. In this retrospective study, case records of 669 patients with open globe injuries were analyzed. Different preoperative variables were correlated with the final visual outcome. Exclusion criteria were patients with less than four months follow up, previous ocular surgery, presence of intraocular foreign body or endophthalmitis at the time of presentation. Using statistical tests, the prognostic factors for vision outcome following surgical repair of open globe injuries were studied. RESULTS: Based on the Spearman's Rho correlation analysis, following factors were found to be significantly associated with the final visual acuity at univariate level: age (P<0.001), preoperative visual acuity (P=0.045), mode of injury (P=0.001), and time lag between the injury and surgery (P=0.003). None of the other clinical factors have statistically significant correlation with final visual acuity. On multivariate analysis using binary logistic regression, only age, mode of injury and the time lag between injury and surgery achieved statistically significant results. CONCLUSION: In the current study, elapsed time between the injury and surgery, age of the patient, preoperative visual acuity and mode of injury were found to be adversely affecting the final visual outcome. Recognizing these factors prior to surgical intervention or intraoperatively can help the surgeon in evidence-based counseling of the trauma victim and family.