Suicidal eye injuries

A review of the scientific literature on cases of eye injuries due to suicidal motives is presented. It is noted that these are quite rare observations in clinical practice, and summarizing the collected material, only some specific characteristics of this contingent can be distinguished. More often these are middle-aged men suffering from a mental illness, having experience of intentional self-harm, including suicidal motives, problems with law, often abusing drugs or alcohol. The choice of the object of impact (the organ of vision) may be due to the limited availability of means for self-harm, severe mental pathology and/or the desire to quickly achieve the effect with the help of improvised piercing and cutting objects. Less commonly, eye damage is made as the result of the use of firearms and intentional head wounds. High trauma, morbidity, risk of loss of vision and death indicate the predominance of these individuals true motives to die and the rarity of attempts designed for other (non-lethal) purposes. In conclusion, the authors assume that the noted features of the contingent that inflict eye injuries for suicidal reasons make it difficult to effectively prevent such tragedies. This indicates the importance of a deeper study of the topic, the need to train medical personnel and draw their attention to possible factors and risk groups, to involve specialists in other areas of activity in preventive work (employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service, social services, etc.).