ABSTRACT

Purpose:

Endophthalmitis is an inflammation of the intraocular structures and is mostly associated with open-globe injuries and various surgical eye interventions. In this study, we investigated the endophthalmitis rate in patients who underwent primary repair of open-globe injury.

Material and Method:

We retrospectively reviewed the records of patients with open-globe injuries who had attended Yüzüncü Yıl University, Department of Ophthalmology between 1993 and 2009. We analyzed the data of 810 patients who had undergone primary repair; of those, 64 patients had developed endophthalmitis.

Results:

Endophthalmitis rate was 7,9% (64 patients). Perforating eye injury was commonly seen between 2 and 6 years of age; 56 cases (88%) were with corneal, 2 (3%-with scleral, and 6 cases (9%) were with corneoscleral perforation. Regarding the time between the onset of endophthalmitis and trauma, 11 (17%) patients developed endophthalmitis in the first 12 hours, 15 (23%) - between 12-24 hours, 13(20%) - on the second day, 13 (20%)-on the third day, and the remaining 12 patients - between the fourth and 30th day. The range of the follow-up period was 2 days-96 months. The most common agents in patients who developed posttraumatic endophthalmitis were metal objects such as fork, knife, needle, injector (39%), wood and thorn (23%) and the remaining were stone, glass, and animal-related factors like horn.

Discussion:

It was seen that 64 out of 810 patients (7,9%) in our clinic developed endophthalmitis after primary repair of penetrating eye injury.