Die vergelijking is sowieso niet serieus te nemen. Men vergeet namelijk even dat er in een oorlog doden vallen. En hoe erg het ook is dat er 14 man een oog moet missen en dat er een paar meer slecht zicht in de ogen hebben.
Maar dood zijn ze daarintegen niet! In tegenstelling tot vele militairen in Irak wél!
U.S. Military Deaths By Year/Month
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total
2003 0 0 65 74 37 30 48 35 31 44 82 40 486
2004 47 20 52 135 80 42 54 66 80 64 137 72 849
2005 107 58 35 52 80 78 54 85 49 96 84 68 846
2006 62 55 31 76 69 61 43 65 72 106 70 112 822
2007 83 81 81 104 126 101 80 84 66 38 37 23 904
2008 40 29 39 52 19 29 13 23 25 14 17 14 314
2009 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 16
Maargoed, er zijn cijfers die anders concluderen:
Objective
To report the injury patterns associated with perforating (through-and-through) injuries of the globe and the visual impact of these injuries on patients with combat ocular trauma (COT) seen at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) from March 2003 through October 2006.
Design
Retrospective, noncomparative, interventional case series.
Participants
Sixty-five eyes of 61 United States military soldiers deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom sustaining perforating globe injuries and treated subsequently at WRAMC.
Intervention
Principal procedures included enucleation and 20-gauge 3-port pars plana vitrectomy with or without intraocular foreign body removal.
Main Outcome Measures
Final visual acuity and rates of proliferative vitreoretinopathy, enucleation, and endophthalmitis.
Results
Average patient age was 29 years, with an average of 200 days of postinjury follow-up (median, 97 days; range, 4–1023 days). Nineteen patients confirmed the use of eye protection at the time of injury, whereas 25 patients did not use eye protection. The median presenting visual acuity at WRAMC was no light perception (range, no light perception to hand movements). Twenty-five patients underwent primary enucleation, 1 was eviscerated, and 12 patients underwent secondary enucleation within 2 weeks of surgery. Of 19 patients undergoing pars plana vitrectomy, median visual acuity at presentation was light perception and the median final visual acuity was counting fingers, whereas 4 eyes (21%) achieved final visual acuity of better than 20/200, and in 11 (61%) of 17, proliferative vitreoretinopathy developed over a follow-up of at least 6 months. There were no cases of endophthalmitis or sympathetic ophthalmia. Neither mechanism of injury nor timing of surgery correlated with favorable outcomes. However, entry and exit wounds localized to the anterior half of the globe were associated with favorable anatomic outcome (P<0.005, Fisher exact test, 2-tailed) and visual outcome (P = 0.041, Fisher exact test, 2-tailed).
Conclusions
Perforating globe injuries associated with COT generally result in poor visual and anatomic outcomes despite surgical intervention. Prophylactic measures, such as eye protection, are helpful in reducing the likelihood of perforating injuries; however, novel surgical and pharmacologic therapies will be required to improve the functional and anatomic outcomes of these devastating injuries.
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