ABSTRACT
Objective:
Evaluate the epidemiology of ocular emergencies in a Reference Ophthalmological Hospital in Goiânia, with emphasis on acute infectious conjunctivitis, morbidity with a higher incidence in this Service. It aims to delineate the main etiologies found among infectious conjunctivitis and to compare them with those found in several others Ophthalmology reference services, thus guiding future diagnoses and treatments of ocular infectious diseases.
Methods:
A cross-sectional and retrospective study was conducted with 783 patients seen at the ophtalmological emergency of the Goiânia Institute of Eyes from May 1 to September 3, 2017. Data were collected through protocols based on physical charts of the ophthalmologic emergency of the hospital.
Results:
The most common ocular emergencies were acute conjunctivitis, followed in decreasing order of incidence by hordeolum and foreign body on ocular surface, with percentages, respectively, of 10.98% and 9.96%, respectively. Among the 783 patients admitted to the emergency room in this period, 302 were diagnosed with conjunctivitis, representing a percentage of 38.56% of the total number of visits. Of these, 226 were diagnosed as having bacterial etiology (74.8%) and 38 (25.2%) as viral etiology.
Conclusion:
Infectious conjunctivitis represents a substantial percentage of the pathologies admitted to ophthalmological emergency services worldwide. In the present study there was also a prevalence of bacterial conjunctivitis, as well as an irrefutable tendency to the early institution of topical antibiotic therapy. The high prevalence of this comorbidity and the difficulty in the clinical diagnosis of the etiology of the infection reiterates the need for further studies in the area in order to optimize the diagnosis and treatment of infectious conjunctivitis.
Keywords:
Conjunctivitis/diagnosis; Conjunctivitis/etiology; Emergency service, hospital; Morbidity
