Characteristics of Ophthalmic Trauma in Fall-Related Hospitalizations in the United States from 2000 to 2017

ABSTRACT

Purpose

Falls is a leading cause of injuries nationally and can lead to serious ophthalmic injuries. The purpose of this study is to examine the incidence and characteristics of ophthalmic trauma in patients with fall-related hospitalizations in the United States.

Methods

Retrospective, cross-sectional study. National Inpatient Sample (NIS) was queried to identify all ophthalmic trauma associated with fall-related hospitalizations from 2000 to 2017. Patients were identified using relevant International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes. National estimates, annual incidences and characteristics were produced from trend weights provided by the NIS sampling frame and population data from the US Census Bureau.

Results

There were 21,415,120 fall-related hospitalizations of which 425,725 (2.0%) had ophthalmic trauma. Ophthalmic injury incidence increased from 4.26 to 14.31 per 100,000 population (P < .01) from 2000 to 2017. Mean (±SEM) age was 69.2 ± 20.1 years and 56.9% were females. Of the patients with specified fall mechanism, the most common mechanisms were tripping or stumbling (48.0%), falls related to furniture (18.3%), and falls related to stairs (16.3%). The most common ophthalmic injuries were contusions of the eye and adnexa including hyphema and commotio retinae (50.1%), orbital fractures (20.7%), and eyelid lacerations (14.9%).

Conclusions

Incidence of ophthalmic trauma in patients with fall-related hospitalizations has increased and our study provides valuable information for targeting preventive measures particularly for the elderly and falls due to tripping, stairs, and furniture related accidents. The most common associated ophthalmic injuries are contusions, orbital fractures and eyelid lacerations.

KEYWORDS:

• Ocular trauma
• epidemiology
• public health

Declaration of interest statement

DS reported receiving personal fees from Alcon and grants from the National Institutes of Health outside the submitted work. None of the following authors have any proprietary interests or conflicts of interest related to this submission: AC, JC, SZ, PR, WS, MI, FW.

Prior submission

This submission has not been published anywhere previously and is not simultaneously being considered for any other publication. This work has been previously reviewed by JAMA Ophthalmology and American Journal of Ophthalmology which cited that incidence of eye trauma with fall-related hospitalizations was previously identified by Iftikhar et al. 2019. However, that study evaluated all hospitalized eye trauma and did not examine the characteristics, causes of falls or types of eye injuries specific to falls.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.