Chemical Injuries of the Eye

This overview of the biochemical and pathophysiologic events after chemical burns of the eye is intended to act as a guide for appropriate therapy. Effective emergency measures must be instituted immediately followed by careful clinical evaluation to recognize and then treat problems at their inception. When and how to use the variety of drugs and devices is detailed. When these new methods and technology are applied successfully the clinical course may be improved and visual rehabilitation secured. The early results of conjunctival transplantation and hormonal therapy offer promise from experimental procedures. Exciting new treatments employing the foodstuffs ascorbate or citrate (orthomolecular therapy) are currently under investigation. The National Eye Institute sponsors our ongoing randomized clinical trial of these compounds in the treatment of the alkali burned eye. The outcome may change our thinking and our expectations after chemical burns of the eye.     

A reevaluation of the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test's repeatability.

PURPOSE: To investigate the repeatability of the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) Test in a group of third grade elementary school students. METHODS: Thirty, third grade children who passed a modified clinical technique vision screening were given the DEM and then retested 2 weeks later. RESULTS: A clinically and statistically significant improvement in mean scores from test to retest was found on the vertical time, horizontal time, and ratio score. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the 95% limits of agreement (LoA) suggest that the vertical (ICC, 0.60; LoA, -4.2 +/- 16.5 s) and corrected horizontal (ICC, 0.55; LoA, -8.3 +/- 17.4 s) times have fair to good repeatability, whereas the ratio score was found to have poor repeatability (ICC, 0.27; LoA, -0.08 +/- 0.39). Based on these results, large changes can be expected on retest, which may result in a change in diagnostic classification from pass to fail. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the ratio score of the DEM had poor repeatability in the third grade children who were evaluated. Poor repeatability of the ratio score may affect the clinician's diagnostic decisions and ability to monitor the effects of saccadic treatment.     

A quarter of a century of the Birmingham Eye Trauma Terminology (BETT) system

Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology -