[Eye burns in children and adolescents]

The authors present a material of 91 eyes in 66 children aged 2 days to 16 years, who sustained burns of the eyes. Fifty one eyes (1st group) was burned by thermal or chemical means, mainly by lime; 40 eyes (2d group) sustained chemico-mechanical injuries caused by explosions of petards or miner's detonators. Bilaterality of the injuries was seen in 50 p.c. of cases of the 1st group and in 25 p.c. of cases of the second group. Reduction of the visual acuity down to light perception was observed in 19.7 p.c. of cases of the 1st group and in 22.5 p.c. of cases in the 2d one; at the same time 2 cases of this group became blind. The cause of deterioration of the visual acuity in the group of chemico-thermal trauma were the corneal opacities, in the group of mixed injuries--changes in the posterior segment of the eye.