Fire-works related eye injuries

Abstract

Purpose: To describe and analyse the clinical spectrum and severity of eye injuries from fireworks. Methods: A retrospective study of medical records. We included all patients who were admitted to P. Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, with eye injuries from fireworks during the period the 1 January 2007 untill the 1 January 2011. Results: Ten patients were admitted to the hospital with serious fireworks related eye injuries. All 10 were males with a mean age of 25 years (range, 17-35). Their visual acuity was from light perception to 0.05. All of them had severe ocular contusion with haemorrhages in anterior chamber, vitreous body and retina. Four patients had lens subluxation and five had traumatic cataracts, ocular hypertension. Three patients had orbital fracture, and four had a choroidal rupture. Pars plana vitrectomy was performed in three cases due to lens subluxation. The final visual acuity after 1 year ranged from 0.005 with eccentric fixation to 0.4. In all cases, there were severe subretinal fibrosis and atrophy of retinal pigment epithelium in the macular region. Conclusions: Fireworks related ocular injuries are severe and often cause permanent reduction in visual acuity. Visual outcome mainly depends on the involvement of the posterior segment of the eye.