American Society of Ocular Trauma

The United States Eye Injury Registry (USEIR) was formed in 1988 as a Federation of individual State Eye Injury Registries, patterned after the already successful Eye Injury Registry of Alabama. The Eye Injury Registry of Alabama was established six years earlier in response to a perceived lack of basic epidemiologic information in the field of eye injury.
Recently the Board of Directors of the USEIR approved the formation of a new organization, the American Society of Ocular Trauma (ASOT), to function as the parent organization of the United States Eye Injury Registry. The purpose of this restructuring is to allow its participants to expand the field of Ocular Trauma and to serve as advocate for this cause through research, education, and legislation while continuing the valuable work of data collection. All functions and activities of the USEIR remain intact and unchanged under this new umbrella organization.

Coincident with the formation of the ASOT, the United States Eye Injury Registry has converted to open, online data collection via the Internet (www.useironline.org). Reporting is voluntary and includes information obtained at the time of initial evaluation and at six-month follow-up. Only severe eye injuries are registered, but non-hospitalized as well as hospitalized patients are eligible for reporting. Epidemiologic information, circumstances of injury, types and description of injury, treatment, final outcome and rehabilitation status are included in the monitored data.

The USEIR is presently working with the International Society of Ocular Trauma to establish the World Eye Injury Registry. International registries have been established or are in start-up phase in Brazil, British Armed Forces, Bolivia, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Finland, India, Italy, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Kenya, Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Venezuela, West Indies(Trinidad), Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe with assistance from the United States Eye Injury Registry.

Since its inception, the United States Eye Injury Registry database has provided on request data regarding ocular trauma epidemiology, including fireworks eye injury, pediatric eye injury, young adult eye injury, sports eye injury, occupational eye injury, non-powder gun eye injury and baseball eye injury among others. Data has been provided for the FDA, U.S. Department of Labor, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), American Academy of Ophthalmology, Prevent Blindness America, American Public Health association, National Society to Prevent Blindness, American Society for Testing and Materials, Cable News Network, and USA Radio Network and other public and private agencies. Recently the Center for Disease Control (CDC) awarded the USEIR a three-year grant to develop an Ocular Trauma Score (OTS) to assist with the prediction of final visual outcomes and resource utilization for ocular trauma victims. The Registry has been acknowledged at numerous national and international scientific meetings and is endorsed by the American Academy of Ophthalmology.