Paediatric ocular and adnexal injuries requiring hospitalisation in Western Australia.

BACKGROUND: The aim was to investigate the characteristics and outcomes of ocular and adnexal injuries requiring hospitalisation in children in Perth, Western Australia.

METHODS: This is a hospital-based retrospective review of children admitted to Princess Margaret Hospital for Children with diagnoses of ocular and/or adnexal trauma from 2002-2013. Hospital charts were reviewed for demographic information, injury and management details, follow-up and visual outcome. Final visual acuity was categorised into three groups: 6/12 or better, from 6/12 to 6/60, worse than 6/60. Ordinal logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios and predicted probabilities for each category of final visual outcome.

RESULTS: Over the 12-year time period, 482 children were admitted with ocular or adnexal injuries - an average of 40 admissions per year. The mean age of the cohort was 7.1 years (range 0.09 to 16.47 years) with a male to female ratio of 2.6:1.0. There were 185 closed-globe injuries, 72 open-globe injuries and 293 adnexal injuries. Fourteen per cent of the cohort sustained a combined globe and adnexal injury. Children in the up to five-year age group were most susceptible to injury. Eighty-two per cent of the group had a final visual acuity of 6/12 or better. Factors associated with poor visual outcomes included younger age (p < 0.01), open-globe injury (p < 0.01) and lens injury (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: Based on the outcomes of our review, paediatric ocular and adnexal trauma are significant causes for hospital attendance in childhood. Identifying associated risk factors will help develop injury prevention strategies to promote eye safety for children.