Clinical Study of Traumatic Hyphema

Yang, Yun Sik; Kim, Jae Duck

Abstract

Clinical study has been carried out on the 80 consecutive cases of traumatic hyphema who had been admitted to Won-Kwang University Hospital for the 3 year period between March of 1985 and February of 1988. Based on these 80 patients, a clinical analysis was conducted as to the degree of bleeding, the time of arrival to hospital after injury, the frequency of rebleeding and the final visual acuity. The followings were the results. 1. Male patients were 67(83.8%) of 80 and the younger age group occupied more than half of all cases; 23(28.8%) in teenagers, 21(26.3%) in third decade. 2. There were varieties of trauma for hyphema such as stone blow(cases, 16.3%), fist(8 cases, 10.0%) and glass pieces(8 cases, 10.0%). 3. Grade I hyphema(bleeding less than one third of anterior chamber) was 45 cases(56.3%) of all. The associated ocular injuries were eyelids laceration (20 cases, 25.0%), angle recession(cases, 15.0%), corneal damage and iris sphinctor rupture(11 cases, 13.8%) and vitreous hemorrhage(10 cases, 12.5%). 4. Of 10 cases of rebleeding encountered in non-perforating group, nine was in Grade II hyphema(bleeding 1/3 and 1/2 of anterior chamber) and the bleeding was noted four to six days after initial trauma. 5. The final visual acuity of above 0.5 increased from 2.3% to 65.1% in Grade I hyphema, from 9.1% to 54.5% in Grade II huphema and from 0 to 36.4% in Grade III hyphema(bleeding more than one half of anterior chamber). 6. The major causes of impaired visual acuity were disorders of vitreous and retina(11 cases, 40.8%) and cataract(5 cases, 18.5%).