A Decade of Evisceration: Investigating the Influence of Demographic, Clinical, and Psychosocial Factors

The study aimed to evaluate the demographic and clinical characteristics of evisceration cases and to assess the psychosocial effects of prosthesis usage using the newly defined Global Ocular Prosthesis Score (GOPS).

The records of 245 patients who underwent evisceration surgery between January 2010 and May 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. The study included 216 eyes of 216 patients who had regular follow-up of at least 6 months. Their demographic characteristics, indications for surgery, surgical methods, implant size, and complications were recorded. A total of 175 patients with ocular prostheses were evaluated using a 20-item questionnaire called GOPS.

About 154 of the 216 patients were male (71.3%), and 62 were female (28.7%), with a mean age of 34.9 years (range: 3-83). The mean follow-up duration was 52.5±34.2 months (range: 6-125). Among the cases, 101 (46.7%) had a penetrating globe injury, 91 (42.1%) had painful absolute eyes, 10 (4.6%) had corneal abscess, 8 (3.7%) had painless blind eyes due to Behçet's disease, 7 (3.2%) had endophthalmitis, 1 (0.04%) had prematurity retinopathy, 1 (0.04%) had corneal melting due to toxic epidermal necrolysis, and phthisis bulbi. Most of the traumas (74.5%) were caused by young (mean age 33.6 years) males. Sphere extrusion was observed in 16 (7.4%) patients at an average of 3 months (15 days to 6 months). Tenon cyst excision was performed in two patients. The mean GOPS was 71.74.

It has been observed that the most common reasons for evisceration in a tertiary eye hospital are globe injuries and painful eyes. Although losing an eye can have negative physical and psychological effects on patients and may prevent them from fulfilling their social roles, it has been observed that the use of ocular prostheses positively impacts patient satisfaction. The use of the GOPS questionnaire can be helpful in assessing the quality of life of evisceration patients.