ABSTRACT
Purpose:
To examine the
incidence, clinical findings and management of pellet gun–related ocular
injuries that occurred during protests in Kashmir region.
Methods:
This
retrospective study included
records from 777
patients diagnosed with pellet gun–related ocular
injuries admitted to a
tertiary hospital in Srinagar,
India, between July and November 2016. By reviewing the clinical
records, the following data were collected demographics, clinical information pertaining to the
injury, imaging
reports including
computer tomography and
ultrasonography B?scan, management in the
emergency setting, and follow?up
treatment.
Results:
Mean age was 22.3 ± 7.2 years and majority
patients were
male (97.7%). In terms of laterality, 94.3% and 5.7% of the
patients sustained monocular and
binocular injuries, respectively. In terms of the
nature of
injury, 76.3% of the
eyes had open globe
injury while 23.7% of the
eyes had closed
eye injury.
Emergency surgical exploration was performed in 67.7% of closed globe
injuries while
emergency primary repair was done in 91.1% of open globe
injuries. The vast majority of
patients (98.7%)
who required
surgery underwent surgical intervention on the day of admission or the next day. Final best?corrected
visual acuity (BCVA)
after treatment was counting
fingers or worse in 82.4% of the
eyes.
Conclusion:
Pellet gun–related ocular
injuries resulted in significant ocular
morbidity, mostly manifesting as open globe
injuries.
Treatment often required surgical interventions, but despite expeditious management, visual
prognosis remained poor for most of the
patients.