Vol. 5 No. 1 (2020): Transactions of the Ophthalmological Society of Nigeria

Editorial Comments

It is with great pleasure that we present the fifth edition of the Transactions of the Ophthalmological Society of Nigeria. This issue is quite different from previous issues as it contains only full-length articles. This is due to the fact that the Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Ophthalmological Society of Nigeria (OSN) did not hold in the year 2020 on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, conference presentations are not available for publication in this issue.

In place of the usual conference proceedings, we have complied and published some review articles as proceedings of the OSN scientific webinars which commenced in May 2020. All the presenters at the webinars were invited to submit review articles on the topics of their presentations after which submitted manuscripts underwent a peer-review process. The articles published in this issue focus on different but important aspects of eye care that are very relevant to ophthalmic practice in Nigeria.

In the first article, Dr. Balogun discusses the principles and management of eyelid injuries. Injury to the eyelids is a common cause of presentation to Accident and Emergency Units but such injuries are often poorly managed. With a focus on mechanical eyelid trauma, the author presents a simple guide for managing eyelid trauma emphasizing the importance of application of relevant knowledge and skills as well as the need for meticulous attention to details when suturing eyelid lacerations. This would ensure anatomical and functional restoration of the eyelid in addition to minimizing post traumatic complications.

In their article, Prof. Adepoju et al. discuss the public health aspects of ocular and adnexal trauma. They review the global and national data on the prevalence of ocular injuries and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of eye trauma. The authors also discuss the determinants and clinical effects of ocular injury. In addition, they emphasise the need for a multidisciplinary, multidimensional approach as well as the role of organisational development in the prevention of eye injuries.

The importance of school eye health programmes is brought to the fore in the article by Prof. Adio. In her paper, she stresses the strong link between children’s visual health and the quality of their learning and educational achievements. The author also shows how the goals of school eye health programmes are directly related to at least six of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). She further highlights the necessary preliminary steps that should be taken before starting school eye health programmes as well as the required personnel and important components of school eye health programmes.

This edition of the journal demonstrates a strong step towards fulfilling the mandate given to the editorial board, during the Annual General Meeting at the Abuja OSN conference in 2018, to publish full length articles. In this regard, we solicit more full length manuscripts from members of the Society for publication in subsequent issues of the journal in addition to the refereed conference proceedings.

We are grateful for the contributions of the several individuals and groups that have made this issue a reality.

We thank the authors, the OSN executive council, the NJO crew, the representatives of subspecialties on the Editorial board and our publishing consultant.

Thank you.

Editorial Team