Seeing the unseen: The low treatment rate of eye emergencies in Africa

Table 1 Summary of search strategy including search component and keywords used

Search component	Keywords/terms used
Ocular	“ocular”[All Fields] OR “oculars”[All Fields]
Emergency	“emerge”[All Fields] OR “emerged”[All Fields] OR “emergence”[All Fields] OR “emergences”[All Fields] OR “emergencies”[MeSH Terms] OR “emergencies”[All Fields] OR “emergency”[All Fields] OR “emergent”[All Fields] OR “emergently”[All Fields] OR “emergents”[All Fields] OR “emerges”[All Fields] OR “emerging”[All Fields]
Africa	“africa”[MeSH Terms] OR “africa”[All Fields] OR “africa s”[All Fields] OR “africas”[All Fields]
Date range	2014: 2024[pdat]
Language, full text, relevance	Records filtered to exclude non-English language, no full text, and non-relevant articles.

Table 2 Summary of the prevalence and incidence rates of eye emergencies across various countries in Africa

Ref.	Type of eye emergency (prevalence)	Study period	Sample size	Data sources	Study design	Country in Africa
Kyei et al[21]	Open globe injuries (71.2%). Blunt trauma causing open-globe injuries (90%). Penetrating Intraocular, and perforating injuries causing open-globe injuries (10%)	January 2017 to December 2021 (4 years)	863	Patients records	Retrospective cross-sectional	Zimbabwe
Bert et al[19]	Ocular trauma (25.7%)	2 days	556	Questionnaire and ocular examination	Cross-sectional survey	Ghana
Douglas and Koroye-Egbe[17]	Ocular burns (42%). Foreign body injury to the eye (32%). Injuries caused by cuts to the eye (4%)	-	212	Ocular examination	Cross-sectional descriptive	Nigeria
Onyekwelu et al[18]	Superficial foreign body to the eye (88.6%). Chemical injury (8.6%). Nail injury to the eye (5.7%)	April 7, 2017 to May 15, 2017 (1 month)	114	Questionnaire, ocular examination and interview	Descriptive cross-sectional	Nigeria
Daoudi et al[27]	Preseptal cellulitis (85%). Orbital cellulitis (15%)	2008 to 2014 (6 years)	28	Patient records	Retrospective cohort	Morocco
Ajayi et al[28]	Neovascular glaucoma (0.05%)	January 2015 to December 2019 (4 years)	566	Patient records	Retrospective cohort	Nigeria
Koki et al[29]	Ocular trauma (16.92%)	January 2008 to December 2014 (6 years)	591	Patient records	Retrospective cohort	Cameroon
Kibret and Bitew[30]	Fungal keratitis (45.1%)	September 2014 to August 2015 (11 months)	153	Clinical examination	Cross-sectional	Ethiopia
Haingomalala et al[31]	Serious ocular trauma (5.75%)	January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2011 (2 years)	1267	Patient records	Retrospective cohort	Madagascar
Damtie and Siraj[32]	Eye injury (7.7%)	2019	300	Questionnaire	Cross-sectional	Ethiopia
Baba et al[33]	Penetrating ocular injury (65.7%)	January 2006 to November 2013 (7 years)	100	Patient records	Retrospective cohort	Tunisia
Bastola et al[34]	Ocular trauma (1.94%)	September to November 2018 (3 months)	280	Clinical examination	Prospective observational	Eritrea