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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Gustavo Figueiredo, Professor Francisco FigueiredoORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
© The Author(s) 2025. Introduction: Chemical eye injury is an ophthalmic emergency which can lead to loss of vision. We aimed to determine the prognostic value of tear film pH on presentation in acute chemical eye injuries. Methods: Demographics, pH values, causative chemical, injury circumstances, injury severity, and clinical and visual outcomes were assessed from previously collated data from patients presenting to the emergency eye department (EED) in a UK tertiary hospital. All patients who had pH measured before irrigation in the EED were included. Associations with injury severity and clinical and visual outcomes were analysed. Results: Pre-irrigation pH was recorded in 135 eyes (113 patients, 66.4% male, mean age 35.5 years [range 2–78; standard deviation (SD) 15.4]; 15 acid, 108 alkali, 12 unknown). The pH within 24 h of injury (n = 108 eyes) correlated significantly with injury severity (rs = 0.20, p = 0.02). In patients with abnormal pH on presentation (n = 26 eyes), pH correlated strongly with injury severity (rs = 0.72, p < 0.01). There was no significant correlation with visual outcome at follow-up (n = 70 eyes, 60 patients, follow-up 1–3929 days, mean 579.4 days, SD 1206.0 days; rs = 0.12, p = 0.11). Presenting pH below 6.5 or above 7.5 was a significant predictive factor for the presence of limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) (univariate binary logistic regression analysis, p = 0.026, Nagelkerke R-squared = 0.090). Conclusion: Deranged pH correlated with burn severity in patients presenting within 24 h of injury and was a significant predictive factor for LSCD.
Author(s): Spowart E, Pradhan S, Bruce C, Salvador-Culla B, Figueiredo G, Figueiredo FC
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Ophthalmology and Therapy
Year: 2025
Pages: Epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 03/06/2025
Acceptance date: 23/04/2025
Date deposited: 16/06/2025
ISSN (print): 2193-8245
ISSN (electronic): 2193-6528
Publisher: Springer Nature
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40123-025-01155-6
DOI: 10.1007/s40123-025-01155-6
Data Access Statement: The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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