Visual outcome after emergency surgery for open globe eye injury in Japan

BACKGROUND: Most patients with open globe eye injury are brought to hospital as emergency patients and usually require admission for emergency surgery. We analyzed the visual outcome in patients with open globe eye injury at our hospital over a 4-year period. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study reviewed 40 eyes of 40 patients with open globe eye injury who were presented to Juntendo University Shizuoka Hospital and required emergency surgery during the 4 years from January 2010 to December 2014. Retrospective evaluation of the visual outcome was performed using data from the medical records, including assessment of the influence of sex, side of the eye injury, cause of injury, and site/severity of injury. RESULTS: The mean age (SD) at the time of the injury was 58.9 years (±25.1 years). There were 28 males (70.0%) and 12 females (30.0%). Statistically significant improvement in visual acuity after treatment was noted in the males (P=0.0015, Wilcoxon test), but not in the females. Twenty-five patients had injury to the right eye (62.5%) and 15 had injury to the left eye (37.5%). A significant improvement in visual acuity was achieved after treatment of injury to the right eye (P=0.021), but not the left eye (P=0.109). The most frequent cause of injury was an accident (15 eyes; 37.5%). The second most frequent cause was work-related injury (14 eyes; 35.0%), which only occurred in males, and the third cause was accident due to negligence (eleven eyes; 27.5%). Two patients developed sympathetic ophthalmia and one patient developed postoperative endophthalmitis. CONCLUSION: The majority of patients with open globe eye injury were male workers in Japan. The visual outcome of work-related injury was better than that of injury due to other causes. The visual outcome was also better if the right eye was injured compared with the left eye. Patients with injuries due to negligence were older than the other groups, and this finding might be characteristic of an aging society.