Contact lens problems send many kids to ER each year

Medical devices like contact lens send more than 70,000 American children to emergency rooms each year because of injuries they cause, according to a new study led by Dr. Cunlin Wang, an epidemiologist in the Office of Surveillance and Biometrics at the Food and Drug Administration (United States).

Dr. Wang was quoted by healthday.com as saying that 70 percent of the medical device injuries were caused by ophthalmic devices, general hospital devices and ob-gyn devices.

Ophthalmic devices included contact lenses, eye glasses and eye protection instruments. General hospital devices included infusion pumps, catheters and hospital beds. Ob/gyn devices included contraceptive devices and devices used for vaginal exams.

The findings reported in the August issue of Pediatrics were based on information from a national database of pediatric injuries treated in emergency departments for medical device-induced injuries between early 2004 and late 2005.

During the two-year period, 144,799 visits to ER were recorded nationwide, which were classified into 13 medical specialties.  Among the injury-causing medical devices, contact lenses (23%) and hypodermic needles (8%) were most prone to resulting in injuries.

Most common types of injuries included contusions and abrasions, foreign-body intrusions, punctures, lacerations and infections and the body parts where injuries occurred most often included the eyeball, pubic area, fingers, face and ears.

Medical devices that often caused injuries in young children were shunts, intravenous tubes and tubes placed in the stomach.

DAVID LIU