Purpose:

To evaluate the etiological and clinical characteristics of patients with blunt eye trauma.

Patients and Methods:

86 patients whom presented to SSK İstanbul Hospital Eye Clinic from 1999 to 2002 with blunt eye trauma were evaluated retrospectively. All patients underwent detailed ophthalmological, ultrasonographic and radiological examination. All patients underwent medical and surgical treatment and fallowed up thereafter.

Results:

From 86 patients; 62 male and 24 female with blunt eye trauma included in this study. Etiological factors were blow-fall (%38), play accident (%32),work accident (%14), assoult (%9) and traffic accident (%6).The most common findings detected were hyphema, corneal epithelial defect and edema, eyebrow-eyelid echymosis and edema; whereas the less common findings were secondary glaucoma, traumatic cataract, lens subluxation and luxation ,traumatic iritis and iridodialysis and posterior segment pathologies. Medical treatment was successful in most of the patients, and surgical treatment was applied for lesser group of patients.

Conclusions:

In our study we observed that blunt eye traumas occur mostly in children and young adults. The occurence of traumas during play time and blow-fall points out that these may be preventable. We concluded that blunt eye traumas can cause loss of vision and complete ophthalmological examination is important in such cases.

Keywords: Blunt eye trauma, hyphema, lens subluxation