Original articleSevere Eye Injuries in the War in Iraq, 2003–2005
Section snippets
Patients and Methods
The authors retrospectively gathered information on all severe eye injuries treated by United States Army ophthalmologists that occurred in the war in Iraq from March 2003 through December 2005. The patients usually underwent an initial evaluation by a medic or corpsman at or near the location of injury. Then, patients usually were evacuated to an ophthalmologist in Iraq or Kuwait, where they had definitive evaluation and treatment. The patients included coalition forces, enemy prisoners of
Results
From March 2003 to December 2005, 16 356 United States military personnel were wounded in action.1 During this time, 797 patients were evaluated and treated for a severe ocular or ocular adnexal injury (Table 1). The average age was 27 years (median, 25 years; range, 4–61 years). Males made up 97% of ocular casualties. Of those casualties treated, 55% were United States military personnel. Only 74 individuals were documented to have been wearing ocular protection at the time of injury. The
Discussion
Of the 16 356 injured and 1706 Americans killed from the onset of the Iraq War in March 2003 through December 2005, many suffered severe eye trauma.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 These data delineate nearly 800 severe eye injuries sustained by United States soldiers, allied forces, enemy combatants, and civilian personnel during this same period.
It should be kept in mind that this report covers
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Manuscript no. 2007-3.
The authors have no financial interest in any product, drug, instrument, or equipment discussed in the article.
The opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views or official policy of the United States Army or the Department of Defense.