[Ocular injuries occurring in motor vehicular accident victims, Yazd province]

ABSTRACT

Motor vehicular accidents are one of the leading causes of death in young men and severe complications in all age groups. This study was carried out to evaluate eye injuries secondary to motor vehicular accidents that have a high rate of occurrence in Yazd province. This descriptive, cross- sectional study was conducted through case series method. Simple sampling, i.e. census from the under study population was performed to complete the sample number. The study was carried out in 1383 on 126 motorcycle accident cases with eye injuries referred to the Kalantari Emergency Department. Data collected from questionnaires was analyzed by SPSS software using chi-square, Fisher and Variance analysis statistical tests. Of the 126 cases, 124 [98.4%] were male and 2 [1.6%] were female. The mean age of the patients was 27.4 [SD=13.7] ranging between 5 months and 81 years. The highest rate of accidents was between cars and motor cycles; 83 cases [65.9%] and most of them [76.2%] were in the city. The most frequent eye injury was sub conjunctival hemorrhage in 112 cases [44.4%] followed by eyelids injury [Right side 64 cases [50.8%] and left side in 55 cases [43.6%]], orbital injury in 57 cases [22.6%] of which 39 cases [68.4%] had periorbital hematoma and 18 cases [31.6%] had an orbital fracture, 20 cases [7.9%] had ocular movement limitation and lacrimal drainage system injury was seen in 13 cases [5.2%]. Those with helmets had more mandibular fractures [p=0.0001]. The victims of motor vehicular accidents in our study were young men. The most frequent eye injuries were sub conjunctival hemorrhage, eyelid, orbital and lacrimal system injuries