War-related ocular injuries in Damascus during the Syrian Crisis.

BACKGROUND: . Ocular injuries constitute a major cause of visual morbidity, and they have a significant socioeconomic impact worldwide. We aimed to document the types and causes of Syrian War related ocular injuries in Damascus, Syria. METHODS: . Medical records were retrospectively reviewed to evaluate all patients in Al-Mouwasat University Hospital and Damascus Hospital, whose ocular injuries were caused by war-related activities during the period extending between January of 2016 and December 2017. RESULTS: . 150 eye injuries in 127 patients were reviewed, in which 46 (31%) were bilateral and 87 (58%) were open globe injuries. The leading cause of the observed ocular injuries was improvised explosive devices (IED) [37 eyes (41%)]. The majority of patients presented with an initial best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of "light perception" (LP) to "hand movement" (HM) [51 eyes (34%)]. Information on the final BCVA was available for 69 injured eyes only, and it was "no light perception" (NLP) in 20 eyes (29%). CONCLUSION: . Explosive weaponry is the main culprit in most war-related ocular injuries in Syria. The high incidence of open globe injuries caused many of the cases to be severe in nature. Education on the precautionary measures that protect the eyes such as the use of combat eye protection during wartimes ought to be enforced, so that future ocular injuries can be prevented.

Do eye movement impairments in patients with small vessel cerebrovascular disease depend on lesion load or on cognitive deficits? A video-oculographic and MRI study.

Small vessel cerebrovascular disease (SVCD) is one of the most frequent vessel disorders in the aged brain. Among the spectrum of neurological disturbances related to SVCD, oculomotor dysfunction is a not well understood symptom- in particular, it remains unclear whether vascular lesion load in specific brain regions affects oculomotor function independent of cognitive decline in SVCD patients or whether the effect of higher brain function deficits prevails. In this study, we examined a cohort of 25 SVCD patients and 19 healthy controls using video-oculographic eye movement recording in a laboratory environment, computer-based MRI assessment of white matter lesion load (WMLL), assessment of extrapyramidal motor deficits, and psychometric testing. In comparison to controls, the mean WMLL of patients was significantly larger than in controls. With respect to eye movement control, patients performed significantly worse than controls in almost all aspects of oculomotion. Likewise, patients showed a significantly worse performance in all but one of the neuropsychological tests. Oculomotor deficits in SVCD correlated with the patients' cognitive dysfunctioning while there was only weak evidence for a direct effect of WMLL on eye movement control. In conclusion, oculomotor impairment in SVCD seems to be mainly contingent upon cognitive deterioration in SVCD while WMLL might have only a minor specific effect upon oculomotor pathways.