Background and Aim: Information on the causes of hospitalization is essential to plan a better use of resources .According to certain hospital and WHO records cataract is the most important cause of blindness (%50) in the world. So, this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of eye disease among Imam-Reza hospital clients.
Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study hospitalized clients in ophthalmology center of Birjand Imam-Reza hospital were assessed (1994-2001). Data were collected from patients’ files. These data included demographic information, medical diagnoses and other necessary data which were recorded in ICD-10 in a questionnaire and because the data was scattered very much it was collected in 8 categories and then analyzed.
Results: The findings of this study showed that 523 patients were hospitalized (for 543 eye problems). Of these 45.5% were females and 54.5% were males. Eye surgery was the most important reason for hospitalization and among eye diseases cataract was the most prevalent (60%). Glaucoma was 3.7% and had more complications than cataract. Medical treatment was administrated to 7.3% of patients. Except two cases of endophthalmitis, which occurs after cataract
surgery and one fungal keratitis, other cases responded to medical treatment.2.6% of patients had nasolacrimal duct obstruction and 3.1% underwent plastic surgery.11.6%had eye trauma and 303% had retinal detachment.
Conclusion: This study allowed to estimate the burden of hospitalization and the cause of admission considering priority. In this study we did not have retinal detachment after cataractsurgery but exogenous endophthalmitis was higher in our patients .Ocular trauma has noticeably reduced in recent years. The most common cause of hospitalization was cataract; so it is necessary to do another survey to determine possible risk factors in clients suffering from cataract