Frequency, Causes and Medico-Legal Aspects of Grievous Injury to the Eye after Physical Assault
Abstract:
Background: A medicolegal report is prepared by the
medicolegal officer in conjunction with an ophthalmologist
in cases of physical assault claiming vision loss. The objective
was to report the frequency and cause of grievous injury to
the eye after a physical assault.
Materials & Method: This was a descriptive cross-sectional
study, conducted in the Department of Ophthalmology of a
tertiary care hospital in Pakistan from October 2019 to August
2022. A total of 378 medicolegal cases were reported in the
ophthalmology outpatient. Among them, 285 patients of
physical assault were included with consecutive sampling
technique.
Results: The mean age of the patients was 33.93±12.96 years.
The mean reporting time to an ophthalmologist was 4.1±8.2
days. Simple and grievous injuries were found in 278 (97.5%)
Journal of Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons
Vol. 42, No. 4, October 2024 and 7 (2.4%) cases, respectively. Among the grievous injuries,
4 (57.2%) were close globe injuries and 3 (42.8%) were open
globe injuries. Thirteen (4.5%) were malingers. Domestic
violence was observed in 82 (28.8%) study subjects.
Conclusion: The frequency of grievous injury to the eye is
very low (2.4%) in patients with physical assault. The patients
of assault-related grievous injury were mostly males, young
age, low level of education, and doing manual jobs. Vitrolage
with corneal melting, and firearm injury caused the grievous
injury in open globe patterns. Vitreous hemorrhage, retinal
detachment, macular hole, and secondary glaucoma were
seen among close globe patterns.