A case series of harmful eye practices following trauma seen at Lagos University Teaching Hospital

Abstract

A case series which highlights the different harmful eye practices which are still being practiced by individuals even following an initial ocular trauma in an Urban City like Lagos in Nigeria. Three cases of patients with vision loss/blindness, following instillation of harmful substances into the eyes, are presented. The first is a 24-year-old female undergraduate who applied her urine and “holy water” into both eyes, following an initial bilateral blunt ocular injury with resultant bilateral corneal abscess. The second is a 54-year-old male auto-electrician who applied his urine and then alum solution into his left eye, following trauma to the eye with resultant anterior staphyloma. In the third case, olive oil and kerosene were applied into the right eye of a 5-year-old male pupil, following accidental application of super glue into the eye, with resultant ankyloblepharon and vision loss. Harmful eye practices and poor health-seeking behavior still remain a challenge in the 21st-century Nigeria. There is a need for more awareness and information dissemination programs, which can be instituted to help reduce needless vision loss/blindness resulting from harmful eye practices.