Literature review on eye trauma in Africa

BackgroundOcular trauma is a relevant cause of monoocular blindness in Africa. Although once neglected, it has recently been incriminated as one of the main etiologies of non-congenital visual impairment throughout Africa, the epidemiology of ocular injuries varies across regions, and remains an increasing concern, hence the interest in highlighting its aspects. ObjectiveThis study aims to take stock of the overall situation on the epidemio-clinical, etiological and therapeutic aspects. MethodsThis study is a narrative literature review of articles on ocular trauma in Africa published in Medline via Pubmed and Semantic scholar from Research rabbit. After cross-referencing the keywords, we found, relative to our study period from 2012 to 2022, 215 articles in the literature on eye trauma, of which nine articles were thus retained according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. ResultsIn relation to the frequency, the highest frequency according to the regions is 44.1% observed in the studies carried out in Tanzania in 2019 and the lowest is observed in the studies carried out in Nigeria in 2017 while two years later still in Nigeria the results showed an increasing trend to 30.7%; which proves that the frequency of eye trauma in Africa varies in time and space. Clinically, the results illustrate the most common clinical signs. It emerges that each study has its particularity on the most common signs. Whatever the spatio-temporal particularities of eye trauma, the most commonly used management is medical treatment.