Traumatic ruptured globe eye injuries in a large urban center

Eitan S Burstein, Douglas R Lazzaro

Departments of Ophthalmology, SUNY Downstate Medical Center and Kings County Hospital Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine patient characteristics and outcomes in a group of consecutive patients with ruptured globe eye injuries at Kings County Hospital Center, a large, urban, level 1 trauma center.
Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed to identify all patients with ruptured globe eye injuries seen between January 2009 and October 2011. Thirty-eight patients who sustained ruptured globe eye injuries from all causes were investigated for etiology and final visual outcomes
Results: Eight eyes in which vision could be assessed were evaluated as having no light perception at presentation and three of these eyes required primary enucleation. Of the 38 eyes, orbit fractures were found in 15 eyes and an intraocular foreign body was found in six eyes.
Discussion: Our cohort revealed a 37.5% rate of primary enucleation in eyes with no light perception, which we believe to be a reflection of the severity of injury. All three cases were secondary to a gunshot wound. Further, our sample, although small in size, revealed a very high percentage of eyes that were ruptured secondary to violent causes compared with other studies.

Keywords: rupture, trauma, violence, urban, epidemiology, emergency, globe