PENETRATING OCULAR TRAUMA IN CHILDREN BY BROOMSTICK BOWS AND ARROWS

Ocular trauma by ''broomstick bows and arrows'' is a unique penetratin g injury among Indian children. Hitting the eye with a great velocity, these highly contaminated missiles may cause severe damage. The resul ts of surgical treatment of 100 children who suffered such trauma are presented. Anatomic success, ie, successful reconstruction of the glob e with attached retina, was attained in 85 (85%) of these eyes. Functi onal success, ie, improvement in visual acuity of two Snellen lines in eyes with measurable preoperative acuity, or improvement to at least 2/60 in the eyes with preoperative acuities of light perception or han d movements, was attained in 62 (62%) of the eyes. Of the functionally successful eyes, an acuity of 6/9 or better was achieved in 28 (45.2% ). Factors predictive of poor anatomical success were: injuries involv ing both anterior and posterior segment (P<.02), endophthalmitis (P<.0 5), and presence of retinal detachment with or without proliferative v itreoretinopathy (P<.05). Mean follow up was 4.5 +/- 3.59 months (rang e, 2 to 24 months).