Epidemiology of ocular emergencies in Cluj ophthalmology clinic

Objective. This study focused on the epidemiology of ocular diseases in the Eye Emergency Room. Methods. A cross-section retrospective study was performed in the Ophthalmology Clinic in Cluj-Napoca and included 11786 patients who presented to the Eye Emergency Room throughout the whole year, from January to December. Results. Every month, between 782 to 1189 patients with an average age of 39.54 years (±21.14) presented to the Eye Emergency Room. 250 were infants, under 1 year old. Six disease categories were followed: inflammation, trauma, vascular, tumor, glaucoma, and retinal-vitreal. Conjunctivitis and corneal foreign bodies accounted for almost half of the cases. Most of the conjunctival cultures revealed negative results. Conclusions. Consistent with the large number of patients included in this study, we considered the epidemiological data representative for our region. Male gender and youth represented the main risk factor for eye injury, while children remained the main group with conjunctivitis.