Journal of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology
Open Access

Abstract

The Cuban Ocular Trauma Registry

Roberto Alejandro Guerra Garc?a, Diley P?rez Garc?a, Frank Egu?a Mart?nez, Yannara Elina Columbi? Garbey and Ra?l R?a Mart?nez

Purpose: To create an ocular trauma registry and analyze the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of serious eye injuries in Cuba.
Methods: Analysis of information from 120 eyes entered in the Cuban Ocular Trauma Registry was done. Age, gender, trauma scenarios, use of eye protection, cause and type of eye injury, ocular structure involvement and initial and final best-corrected visual acuity at 3 months of follow-up were addressed. Legal blindness was defined as visual acuity worse than 20/200.
Results: The mean age was 38 years with a male predominance. No less than 43 percent of ocular trauma took place at home. Hammering on metal was the main source of injury in 39 percent of patients. Intraocular foreign body was seen in 48 percent of lesions. Fifty-one percent ended with vision better than 20/200 and 49 percent had legal blindness in the injured eye.
Conclusions: The creation of our Ocular Trauma Registry has allowed us to recognize the specific features of ocular injury in our country. Preventive measures based on these results should reduce the incidence of blinding trauma.