Researchers provide an overview of ocular injuries in UK patients following serious accidents

Between 2004 and 2021, there was a shift in which accidents most frequently resulted in ocular injuries – from vehicle collisions to falls

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Selina Powell

30 May 2024

Researchers have explored trends in major trauma patients who experienced ocular injuries between 2004 and 2021 in the UK.

The study, which was published in Eye, highlighted that 0.82% of the 287,267 major trauma patients over the period had ocular injuries.

The presence of ocular injuries in this patient group decreased over the time period – from 1.87% in 2004–2006, to 0.66% by 2019–2021.

Ocular injuries were more common in men, with 72.2% of ocular injuries among trauma patients occurring in males.

The proportion of ocular injuries due to road traffic accidents decreased over the study period – with vehicle collisions causing 43.1% of ocular injuries among trauma patients in 2004–2006, dropping to 26% of ocular injury cases in trauma patients in 2013–2015.

From 2016–2017, falls become the most common form of accident among trauma patients that cause ocular injury – accounting for 27.1% of cases.

In terms of the type of ocular injury among major trauma patients, injuries to the conjunctiva were most common (29.3%), followed by retina (18.5%), sclera (12.8%) and optic nerve (8.6%).