Citation

Osaadon P, Tsumi E, Pokroy R, Sheleg T, Peleg K. Eye 2018; 32(11): 1717-1722.

Affiliation

The Disaster Medicine Department & The Executive Master Programs for Emergency and Disaster Management, Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/s41433-018-0167-3

PMID

29988071

Abstract

PURPOSE: To determine the characteristics of ocular injuries treated by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) field hospital following three natural disasters: the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the 2013 typhoon in the Philippines, and the 2015 earthquake and avalanche in Nepal. The purpose was to provide data, which would assist allocation of ocular resources for future disasters.

DESIGN: Retrospective database study.

METHODS: Ocular clinical data collected from the IDF database. Time postdisaster was divided into three periods: 4-8, 9-12, and 13-16 days. Diagnoses were categorized as disaster-related (DRD), defined as directly resulting from the disaster (mostly ocular trauma), and nondisaster-related (NDRD), defined as preexisting conditions or results of postevent living conditions problems.

RESULTS: The field hospitals began functioning 3-8 days after the disaster and continued for 10.3 ± 1.5 days. Ocular conditions were treated in 265 (4.9%) of the total 5356 patients. Sixty-five cases were DRD and 200 were NDRD. Around day 9 postdisaster the predominant ocular referral changed from DRD to NDRD.

CONCLUSIONS: Deployment of a field hospital to a natural disaster area should take into account the type and geographic location of the disaster as well as the high number of nontraumatic ocular conditions.

Language: en