CHEMICAL AND THERMAL EYE BURNS IN THE RES IDENTIAL AREA OF THE RWTH-AACHEN - ANALYSIS OF THE ACCIDENTS OVER A ONE-YEAR PERIOD BY THE AID OFA NEW DOCUMENTATION SYSTEM

Background: Until now there were no statistical data on the incidence and the prevalence of eye bums. Therefore we studied all patients comi ng to our hospital from the area of Aachen with eye burns during the t ime from september 1990 until august 1991. Patients and methods: All p atients underwent a standardized examination including special history of the burning agent, industrial medical aspects and the employers li ability insurance association. The documentation of the anterior eye s egment pathology was scored seperately for each eye encoded by locatio n and special items. This documentation was worked up by the aid of a database (Filemaker 11). 171 patients with eye bums were documented du ring one year. 65 patients had both eyes burned resulting in 236 docum ented records. Results: The 171 accidents can be divided in 104 (61%) industrial accidents and 64 (37%) housework accidents. 3 accidents wer e of unknown origin. Classification of bums was scored according to Re im 1991. 208 (88%) eyes showed score I burns, 27 (11,5%) score II and only one patient showed a score III eye burn. We saw 121 (70%) male pa tients, 39 (23%) female patients and 11 children (7%). The main age gr oup ranged from 16-45 years. 28% (n=30) of all accidents happened in m achine factories, which have thereby in our study the highest incidenc e of industrial accidents. Conclusion: By means of a one-year statisti c we found that over 60% of all eye burns were industrial accidents, 2 8 in machine factories and 20% in service industries. 37% houseworks a ccidents are very difficult to prevent because of a deficit of safety rules.