Epidemiologic Evaluation and Clinical Aspects of Superficial Corneal Foreign Body Injuries at a Tertiary Referral Center in İstanbul

Abstract

Aim: To assess the demographic characteristics and clinical aspects of superficial corneal foreign body (CFB) trauma, as well as to estimate the impact of awareness of CFB scar on wearing protective goggles (PG). Materials and Methods: A total of 238 patients were enrolled in this prospective study. Four groups were designated, namely group 1-metal industry workers, group 2-construction workers, group 3-workers with different occupations who had considerable risk for CFB trauma and group 4-miscellaneous patients with low risk for CFB trauma. Results: There were 234 (98.3%) men and four (1.7%) women in the study. The mean age was 33.96 +/- 10.54 years (range, 3-69 years). There were 126 patients (52.9%) in group 1, 53 patients (22.3%) in group 2, 27 patients (11.3%) in group 3 and 32 patients (13.4%) in group 4. Seventy-nine patients (38.4%) did not use PG, while, 67 patients (32.5%) occasionally used PG, 34 patients (16.5%) frequently used PG and 26 patients (12.6%) routinely used PG. Awareness of CFB scar was significantly lower in patients who did not use PG (p<0.05). Conclusion: The awareness of CFB scar was significantly lower among patients who never used PG. This could be avoided by arranging training programs for workers.