Abstract: Objective To investigate the trend change of ocular trauma disease spectrum and epidemiological characteristics of ophthalmic emergency patients during novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak period. Design Retrospective comparative case series. Participants One thousand two hundred and nine patients with ocular trauma who admitted ophthalmic emergency department of Beijing Tongren Hospital from January 23, 2020 to March 31, 2020 were enrolled as the study group, and 2444 emergency ocular trauma patients in the same period in 2019 as the control group. Methods Data were extracted from hospital information system, including ages, genders, admitting times, ocular trauma classifications, injury locations, and number of patients. Disease spectrum distribution of emergency ocular trauma and epidemiological characteristics were analyzed. Main Outcome Measures Ages, genders, admitted time, emergency diagnoses, number of patients. Results The total number of ophthalmic emergency patients is 5978 during epidemic period, including 1209 ocular trauma patients (20.2%). The total number of ophthalmic emergency patients is 12776 in the same period in 2019, including 2444 ocular trauma patients (19.1%) (χ2=3.111，P=0.078). Male patients were 835 cases (69.1%) in the study group and 1743 cases (71.3%) in the control group (χ2=1.976，P=0.160). The age of patients was 37.0 (26.5, 52.0) years in the study group and 35.0 (22.0, 50.0) in the control group (U=1369248.50，P＜0.001). Young patients (age from 18 to 44 years) accounted for the most proportion in both groups (561 cases, 46.4%, in the study group; 1090 cases, 44.6%, in the control group) (χ2=1.062, P=0.303). The number and proportion of children (age from 0 to 17 years) showed difference between two groups with statistically significant (199 cases, 16.5%, in the study group; 548 cases, 22.4%, in the control group) (χ2=36.437, P＜0.001). The number of patients with non-mechanical ocular trauma was growing during epidemic period. The patients of electric ophthalmia were more than control group (141 cases, 81.0%, in the study group; 53 cases, 46.9%, in the control group) (χ2=36.437, P＜0.001). The patients of mechanical ocular trauma were less than control group (1035 cases, 85.6%, in the study group; 2331 cases, 95.4%, in the control group) (χ2=106.619, P＜0.001). Eyelid was the most frequently involved part in mechanical eye injuries (599 cases, 57.9%, in the study group; 1351 cases, 58.0%, in the control group) (χ2=0.002, P=0.964). Compared with the control group, conjunctiva injuries were increase (213 cases, 20.6%, in the study group; 336 cases, 14.4%, in the control group) (χ2=19.959, P＜0.001) and uvea injuries were decrease (39 cases, 3.8%, in the study group; 131 cases, 5.6%, in the control group) (χ2=5.125, P=0.024). The difference of open globe injury proportions between two groups was not statistically significant (101 cases, 9.8%, in the study group; 193 cases, 8.3%, in the control group) (χ2=1.966, P=0.161). Conclusion The numbers of ophthalmic emergency visits and ocular trauma patients were decreased sharply during novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreaks period. Males, young people and children were still at high risk of eye injuries. The incidence of ocular trauma in children was dropped. The incidence of electric ophthalmia was increased while the incidence of mechanical ocular trauma was decreased significantly.

Key words: emergency, ocular trauma, spectrum of disease, COVID-19