While ocular injuries are a leading cause of ocular morbidity, many types of ocular damage caused by consumer-related products are avoidable, and epidemiologic data can help identify areas where prevention efforts might be most effective. Their goal was to use data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) to evaluate epidemiologic changes in product-related ocular injuries seen in emergency departments (EDs) from 2001 to 2020. All eye injury emergency room visits from 2001 to 2020 in the NEISS database were analyzed.
Calculating the average yearly percentage change allowed us to identify patterns in occurrences. Over 4 million occurrences of ocular injury were projected to occur in the United States, with 106,533 of those cases being reported to the NEISS database. Summertime had the highest injury rate (69.2%), especially among males (66.2% of cases) under 40. When compared to patients aged 60 and over, the incidence rates were reduced for those aged 60 and under. Patients under the age of 20 were more likely to have been hurt from sports (27.2%), while patients aged 80 and over were more likely to have been harmed owing to furniture (24.0%).
The leading cause overall was home workshop equipment-related products (23.5%). There has been a general decline in the number of people suffering from ocular injuries due to a product during the past two decades, but this decline has not been shared across all age groups. The findings highlighted the need for age-specific therapies based on how often and what causes patients to visit the ED for eye-related issues.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0736467922002955
