Soccer, AFL and basketball are the most dangerous sports related to emergency eye trauma, a study by The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (RVEEH) has revealed.
The Australian-first study into sports-related eye injuries in people under 18 years of age found that more than 30% of the sample were paediatric patients, suggesting targeted interventions for higher risk sports at school may help to reduce injury and create safer sporting practices.
Led by Professor Carmel Crock, Dr Rahul Chakrabarti and Ms Gizem Ashraf, the Sports-related Eye Trauma Study (SETS) – a five-year audit of sports-related eye injuries at a tertiary eye hospital in Australia – analysed more than 1,700 Eye and Ear Emergency presentations between 2015 and 2020.
As the largest tertiary eyecare hospital in Australia, the RVEEH sees more than 40,000 presentations to the Emergency Department (ED) in a typical year, with many of these cases appearing due to sports related eye trauma.
“To date, our study is the most comprehensive in Australia in this field, and we hope the findings help to update guidelines and promote policy changes, particularly for young people. We saw the most presentations from patients aged 10-20 years old. Prevention is the key,” Chakrabarti said.
From the more than 1,700 Eye and Ear Emergency presentations, 54% of these eye injuries were attributed to ball sports.
Soccer and AFL are currently only considered ‘moderate risk’ for eye trauma, and yet ranked as the top two highest risk in this research.
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