Work-related, penetrating eye injuries in rural environments.

PURPOSE

To establish the aetiology and visual outcome after penetrating eye injures in rural environments.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The records of 182 patients (184 eyes) with penetrating eye injuries treated in the 1 st Eye Hospital, Lublin, Poland, between 1994 and 2002, were reviewed. Twenty eight of the 184 eyes (15.6 %) were work-related agriculture penetrating eye injuries. Distribution by age, sex, season variation, cause of injury, place of entrance wound, visual acuity and late complications were estimated.

RESULTS

Of the group of 28 patients, 24 (85.7 %) were male and 4 (14.3 %) female, with the age range between 11-76 (mean 48.2) years. Most injuries were a result of repair and maintenance work in 35.7 %, wood chopping in 25 %, machine use in 17.9 %, simple instruments use in 10.7 %, fall from one level to another in 7.1 %, and cow butting with a horn in 3.6 %. Eighteen eyes (64 %) were blind with visual acuity less than 0.05 at their most recent review.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study has shown that perforating ocular injuries in rural environment are still a big therapeutic, social and economic problem.