Purpose: To evaluate the epidemiology of patients with oculopalpebral injuries in the city of Curitiba. Methods: We studied, prospectively, 622 patients in the Ophthalmology Emergency Service at the Evangelic Uni-versity Hospital of Curitiba from March to July, 1998. Results: The most affected patients were those between 20 and 50 years of age (73.3%) and the males (6 males:1 female). Among the oculopalpebral traumas the most frequent were foreing body (54.6%), chemical keratocon-junctivitis (12.1%) and blunt trauma (8.8%). The oculopla-pebral injuries happened more frequently in the professional (67,4%) than in the domestic (21.2%) environment. We verified that the majority of the patients (67%) came to the Ophthalmology Service during the first 24 hours after the trauma, although ocular protection was not much used in the professional environment and it was not used at all in the domestic one. Conclusions: The authors stress the great socioeconomical impact of the oculars injuries and the necessity of alerting governmental institutions, physicians (ophthalmo-logists and others), entrepreneurs, workers and the general popu-lation about the importance of oculopalpebral trauma prevention to protect ocular health and to improve the human resources in our society.
Oculopalpebral trauma; Ocular trauma; Epidemiology
