The Frequency of Ocular Trauma in Military Victims Referred to the Military Specialist Hospitals

Eye is the main organ to communicate with outside world and is of great importance accordingly. Eye injuries are the major causes of visual impairment and blindness worldwide.
The current study aimed at determining the prevalence and causes of ocular trauma in military victims referred to the eye specialist military hospitals in Tehran and Kermanshah from 2005 to 2015.
Material and The current descriptive, cross sectional study was conducted on 153 reports (110 from Tehran and 43 from Kermanshah) for the military eye injuries referred to the eye specialist military hospitals in Kermanshah and Tehran, Iran, from 2005 to 2015. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire consisted of demographic information and questions related to ocular trauma. Since the instrument measures the individuals’ characteristics, its reliability was not applicable; data were analyzed with SPSS version 16 using statistical tests such as frequency tables and percent of queries. The chi-square and Fisher exact tests were also employed; P-value ≤0.005 was considered the level of significance.
The age of the subjects ranged 18 to 72 years; mean 206.10 ± 85.25. All the victims were male (100%), 71.9% single, 62.1% conscript. Moreover, 48.4% of the clients were admitted to the hospital 1-12 hours after the incidence of trauma. Most of the cases were penetrating trauma (66%) occurred unintentionally (86.3%). Most often happened by sharp tools (63.35%), in garrison (50.3%), and during the morning (41.2%). Most of the cases had no a history of ocular trauma (87.6%); multiple damages was reported in 66.2% of the cases. In 56.2% of the subjects, damage occurred to the left eye and the hospital stay due to damage was a day in 88.9% of them. Most of the victims (66.7%) had undergone surgery in the military hospitals. No significant relationship was observed between demographic information and incidence of ocular trauma in the subjects.
Discussion and The study results showed that eye trauma in the barracks and workplaces mostly occur in the lower ages. In spite of strategies and trainings on employees’ safety, ocular traumas still threat them. To manage employee safety, accurate statistics of eye trauma is required, which, in turn, emphasizes the need for a reliable recording system.