Ocular Battle Injuries among U.S. Military Personnel, 2002-2011
Abstract
This study analyzed Joint Theater Trauma Registry (JTTR) records of 1732 U.S. military personnel sustaining 3222 ocular battle injuries (OBI) from March 2002 through December 2011 during Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn. OBI incidence increased or decreased proportionally as deployed personnel numbers increased or decreased. At the individual level, explosive blasts caused 92 percent of OBI cases, resulting in multiple traumatic head injuries in 84 percent of cases. At the injury level, 50 percent of OBI were open wounds of the ocular adnexa and/or eyeball. Recommendations to increase combat ocular readiness include: allocating appropriate eye care resource and personnel levels to treat expected OBI cases whenever military personnel are deployed, evaluating and treating blast-injured OBI patients with a high index of suspicion for other occult head injuries (especially closed-eye and traumatic brain injuries), enforcing ocular personal protective equipment (PPE) use, and collecting exposure and ocular PPE use data to model the relationship between exposure, OBI severity, and ocular PPE use.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 02, 2013
- Accession Number
- ADA579441
Entities
People
- Amy Barrett
- Dan Wise
- Daryl Simpson
- José E. Capó-aponte
- Kraig Pakulski
- Leonard A. Temme
- Michael K. Lo
- Robert Giffin
Organizations
- United States Army Aeromedical Research Lab