Profile of pediatric ophthalmic referrals in a single emergency department in Korea

Purpose This study was performed to examine a comprehensive profile of ophthalmic (OPH) referrals based on diagnosis in a single emergency department (ED) in Korea. Methods We analyzed the clinical profiles of children (< 18 years) who underwent immediate OPH referrals in a tertiary hospital ED, from March 2013 through December 2022. Exclusion criteria were a visit related to procedural complication and a discharge before thorough evaluation. We focused on a diagnosis-based high OPH severity requiring emergency surgery or hospitalization. The profiles were compared according to the severity and age group (0-3, 4-6, 7-12, and 13-17 years). Results A total of 1,939 children consisted of 1,281 (66.1%) with injury and 658 (33.9%) with non-injury. Top 3 injuries were orbital fracture, hyphema, and corneal abrasion, whereas top 3 non-injuries were keratoconjunctivitis, cellulitis, and hordeolum. Children with high OPH severity (54.5%) had significantly lower proportions of girls (26.5% vs. 38.9%), visits on weekend/holiday (34.4% vs. 43.4%), and most non-injury chief complaints, and higher proportions of 13-17 years (41.1% vs. 23.6%), injury (87.7% vs. 40.1%), emergency surgery (4.9% vs. 0.1%), in-ED procedure (9.3% vs. 2.4%), hospitalization (4.0% vs. 0.8%), and most injury mechanisms. With increasing age, high OPH severity, orbital fracture, and hyphema increased in proportions, in contrast to a decreasing tendency in corneal abrasion, keratoconjunctivitis, cellulitis, and hordeolum (all Ps for trend ≤ 0.001). There were 610 (31.5%) children with low OPH severity or no OPH diagnosis. Conclusion True OPH emergencies may be more common in injured, older, or male children. This finding could be useful in focusing on emergencies while diverting less urgent cases to outpatient departments or outside ophthalmology clinics.