Clinical Evaluation of the Eye Patients Visiting Emergency Medical Center in Sungnam

ABSTRACT

To examine the clinical characteristics of ocular emergency in Sungnam, we analyzed 3784 of the eye patients who visited emergency medical center of Inha university hospital during 3 years from January 1, 1995 to December 31, 1997 The ambulation rate of eye patients was 3.97% of total patients visiting emergency medical center and the admission rate was 8.30%. Male was more common than female about 2-fold and the patients in the age of 3rd decade(30.8%) and 4th decade(23.7%) were common Regarding the eye in trouble, there was no significant difference between right eye and left eye. September and autumn were most common month and season and visit rate of Sunday(27.7%) was highest in a week. According to the arrival time at emergency medical center, largest group was between 9 PM and 12 AM and within 1 hour from the onset of disease most patients visit emergency medical center. Most frequent cause of visit was beating by fist and common ocular diseases were conjunctivitis(20.4%), orbital contusion(17.9%) and eyelid laceration(13.9%).