Cricket-related ocular injuries have a poor prognosis

Dr. Mahapatra SK and associates conducted a prospective study on ocular injuries with tennis or cricket ball to study the clinical features, visual outcome, management, and ocular complications of ocular injury, following trauma. The study has been published in Indian Journal of Ophthalmology.

The researchers conducted a prospective, noncomparative case study of patients having an injury with tennis/cricket ball while playing cricket between January 2013 and April 2016. A total of seventy-six eyes of 76 patients were studied. In all the patients included in study ,Presenting vision, age, gender, time since injury, general and ocular examination, intraocular pressure, indirect ophthalmoscopy, B scan, and X-ray/computed tomography scan findings were noted. Patients were managed medically or surgically as per the need and followed up at least for 6 months.

Of the Seventy-six eyes of 76 patients studied, all cases were male, except two. Majority (80.2%) were <25 years. Median presenting visual acuity (VA) was 6/36 and median final VA was 6/18. The researchers encountered significant findings in the decreasing order of frequency were sphincter tear (26.3%), retinal detachment (23.6%), angle recession (18.4%), choroidal rupture (17.1%), and Berlin's oedema (15.7%). Most of the cases (69.7%) were managed medically. Only 30.2% cases needed surgical intervention. A final visual outcome in our study was depended on initial VA (P = 0.000). It was also correlating with presenting clinical feature (P = 0.010) and type of intervention (medical/surgical) (P = 0.001).

The researchers Concluded that Cricket-related ocular injury generally has a poor prognosis with most cases being closed globe injury; retinal detachment is the most common vision-threatening presentation. In spite of being a common event, the cricket-related injury is sparingly documented and hence needs further studies for proper documentation, prognostication, and formulation of the definitive management plan.