Profile of Ocular Emergencies in a Tertiary Health Centre

Abstract

A cross sectional study was carried out to determine the incidence, types and pattern of presentation of ocular emergency in a tertiary eye care centre.Demography characteristics, medical history,presenting visual acuity and diagnosis of all patients managed as ocular emergencieswere obtained from their hospital records. Three hundred and eight ocular emergencies constituting 10.1% of the total new cases seen were studied. The mean age was 30.7±21.5 years. Non traumatic conditions constituted 57.5% of the cases seen with keratitis and conjunctivitis as the leading diagnosis.Majority (87%) presented after 24hours of onset of symptoms with traumatic cases having a greater odd of presentation within 24hours. A total of 33.4% of the cases were blind in the affected eye at the time of presentation. Ocular emergencies still have a relatively large share of eye conditions in Ekiti with majority of patients having late presentation. One of every three emergencies had monocular blindness in the affected eye at presentation. We recommend an integration of primary eye care into primary health care in Ekiti to minimise ocular morbidity in emergencies. Health education is needed to reduce risk of infections and inflammations by improved ocular hygiene and wearing of protective eye devices.