Introduction: This study investigated the effect of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown on the incidence of ocular trauma.
Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we collected data of patients who presented with ocular trauma in the emergency department during the lockdown period (from 22 March, 2020, to 30 April, 2020). In addition, we collected data of patients presenting with ocular trauma during the same period in the previous year. We compared the number of patients who underwent ocular surgery and the number of paediatric patients with ocular trauma between these two periods. A confounding factor may be the absence of patients from different districts who could not travel to the centre due to travel restrictions.
Results: Between 22 March, 2019, and 30 April, 2019, a total of 76 patients presented with ocular trauma, of whom 28( 37.2%) required surgery. By contrast, between 22 March, 2020, and 30 April, 2020, a total of 78 patients presented with ocular trauma, of whom 33(42)% required surgery. Furthermore, 9% and 30% of the total patients in 2019 and 2020, respectively, belonged to the paediatric age group.
Conclusions: COVID-19 lockdown exerted a significant effect on the incidence of ocular trauma.