Ocular trauma among major trauma victims in a regional trauma center

The authors conducted a retrospective review of the medical records of patients entering an adult level I regional trauma unit to ascertain descriptive epidemiologic information about ocular trauma occurring in the midst of major trauma. Over a 6-year period 6313 patients entered our trauma unit with major trauma. Of these, 856 (13.5%) patients had concomitant ocular trauma. Six hundred twenty-eight (73.4%) patients were male and 228 (22.6%) were female. The average age was 37 years with 743 (86.6%) victims aged between 15 and 55 years, 111 (13.0%) over the age of 55 years. Blacks constituted 48.8% of the sample with whites and other races accounting for 45.4% and 5.5%, respectively. Among the specific causes of ocular injury in our survey, motor vehicle crashes accounted for over 52% of the injuries. Assault-related ocular trauma was responsible for approximately 8% of these injuries. Nearly one third of patients had blood alcohol levels exceeding 100 mg/dL. The mean Revised Trauma Score and Injury Severity Score (based upon AIS-1985 severity coding) of the sample were 6.6 and 19.8, respectively.