Ophthalmic injuries: handbook of initial evaluation and management.

Initial management of ophthalmic injury in the combat zone of guerrilla warfare has been discussed primarily from the vantage points of paramedical personnel and the physician nonophthalmologist. Details of surgical management have been greatly abbreviated and many areas not discussed at all, since they lie beyond the scope of this report. Continuing improvement and innovations in this report. Continuing improvement and innovations in this sphere require constant familiarity with current ophthalamic literature. Most, if not all, of the methods of examination and treatment described in this paper are as applicable to civilian trauma as to wartime injuries. The improved salvage rate of traumatized eyes and the conspicuous absence of sympathetic ophthalmia among US battle casualties since World War II are encouraging. If similar methods are used to evaluate, treat, and evacuate civilians inflicted with traumatic eye disease, the results should be similar.