Pattern of Ocular and Adnexal Injuries Requiring Surgical Intervention among Children in a Tertiary Center in North-Central Nigeria: A 14 Year Review

The study assessed the pattern of ocular and adnexal injuries that required surgical intervention among children with the aim of strengthening preventive, curative and promotive eye care services. The ophthalmic surgical database of the facility was retrospectively reviewed to obtain information on children who had surgical intervention due to trauma from 1st January 2004-31st December 2017; these included demographic data; diagnosis, procedure and the type of anaesthesia administered. Epi Info software, version 3.4 was used for analysis. A total of 361 children (aged <18years) underwent a surgical procedure as a result of ocular trauma within the stated period. There were more males 255(70.6%) than females 106(29.4%) with a male:female ratio of 2.4:1. The mean age was 7.7±3.5years, 356(98.6%) participants had general anaesthesia administered, 267(73.9%) were aged ≤10 years. The main indications for surgical intervention were corneal laceration 143(39.6%), traumatic cataract 99(27.4%), corneo-scleral laceration 34(9.4%), lid ± canalicular laceration 21 (5.8%), intraocular foreign body 16(4.4%), ruptured globe 14(3.9%) and limbal rupture 11(3.1%). A higher proportion of males had corneal laceration 104(40.8%, p=0.40), intraocular foreign body 13(5.1%, p=0.25) and ruptured globe 12(4.7%, p=0.17) while a higher proportion of females had traumatic cataract 35(33%, p=0.14), lid laceration 4(3.8%, p=0.76) and scleral laceration 2(2.8%, p=0.33). The observed differences were however not statistically significant. Of 21 participants who had lid injuries 14(66.7%) were aged ≤5years. Of 14 participants who had ruptured globe, 8(57.1%) were aged 11-17years. We observed that a male child is twice more likely to have an ophthalmic surgery due to trauma.