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Background: Ocular trauma in childhood is a major cause of unilateral acquired blindness in Africa [3]. The aim of the study was to identify the underlying mechanisms of injury in order to develop region-specific prevention strategies., Patients and Methods: The study was performed at the Department of Ophthalmology of Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza, Tanzania, during a 3-month observation period in spring 2019. All children under the age of 17 years who presented with acute eye injury or a history of ocular trauma within 4 years prior to presentation were included. The data collection was performed using a standardized questionnaire based on the UK Paediatric Ocular Trauma Study I, which was adapted to the specific local conditions., Results: We included 49 patients. The mean age at the time of injury was 7 years. Boys were affected more often than girls (69% vs. 31%). The most frequent objects causing injury were wooden sticks (45%). The majority of the injuries happened at home (51%). Only 35% of the patients presented at an eye unit within 24 h after the injury, while 26% waited longer than 7 days. The most common clinical finding was corneal laceration (73%) and 33 patients needed immediate surgical treatment., Conclusion: Ocular trauma in children is a frequent and important ophthalmological issue in Tanzania. To prevent these injuries, more public education concerning adult supervision and eye protection is needed. Furthermore, it is important to raise awareness about the need for an immediate presentation at an eye unit, which can help to achieve a better visual outcome., Competing Interests: Einhaltung ethischer Richtlinien. Interessenkonflikt: P. Krauss, H. Philippin, K.M. Knoll, M. Eidel, M.M. Nentwich, P. Shah, F. Sii, E. Mgaya, F.G. Mndeme und C. Mwanansao geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht. Die Studie wurde mit Zustimmung der zuständigen Ethikkommission und gemäß der Deklaration von Helsinki durchgeführt., (© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.)

Purpose: In recent years artificial intelligence (AI), as a new segment of computer science, has also become increasingly more important in medicine. The aim of this project was to investigate whether the current version of ChatGPT (ChatGPT 4.0) is able to answer open questions that could be asked in the context of a German board examination in ophthalmology., Methods: After excluding image-based questions, 10 questions from 15 different chapters/topics were selected from the textbook 1000 questions in ophthalmology (1000 Fragen Augenheilkunde 2nd edition, 2014). ChatGPT was instructed by means of a so-called prompt to assume the role of a board certified ophthalmologist and to concentrate on the essentials when answering. A human expert with considerable expertise in the respective topic, evaluated the answers regarding their correctness, relevance and internal coherence. Additionally, the overall performance was rated by school grades and assessed whether the answers would have been sufficient to pass the ophthalmology board examination., Results: The ChatGPT would have passed the board examination in 12 out of 15 topics. The overall performance, however, was limited with only 53.3% completely correct answers. While the correctness of the results in the different topics was highly variable (uveitis and lens/cataract 100%; optics and refraction 20%), the answers always had a high thematic fit (70%) and internal coherence (71%)., Conclusion: The fact that ChatGPT 4.0 would have passed the specialist examination in 12 out of 15 topics is remarkable considering the fact that this AI was not specifically trained for medical questions; however, there is a considerable performance variability between the topics, with some serious shortcomings that currently rule out its safe use in clinical practice., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.)

Importance: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a major morbidity of preterm infants causing visual impairment, including blindness, for which timely treatment is vital and prevention is key. Increasing evidence suggests that exposure to neonatal sepsis contributes to ROP development., Objective: To investigate the association between neonatal sepsis and ROP in 2 large-scale cohorts of preterm infants born at less than 29 weeks' gestation., Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective cohort study was conducted using data from the German Neonatal Network (GNN) and Norwegian Neonatal Network (NNN). The GNN involves 68 and the NNN includes 21 level III neonatal intensive care units. Participants were infants born at a gestation of 22 weeks and 0 days to 28 weeks and 6 days and enrolled in the GNN between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2022, and NNN between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2018. Data were analyzed from February through September 2023., Exposure: Single or multiple episodes of culture-proven sepsis., Main Outcomes and Measures: Any ROP and treatment-warranted ROP., Results: Among 12 794 infants in the GNN (6043 female [47.2%] and 6751 male [52.8%]; mean [SD] gestational age, 26.4 [1.5] weeks) and 1844 infants in the NNN (866 female [47.0%] and 978 male [53.0%]; mean [SD] gestational age, 25.6 [1.5] weeks), the mean (SD) birth weight was 848 (229) g and 807 (215) g, respectively. Any ROP was present in 6370 infants (49.8%) in GNN and 620 infants (33.6%) in NNN, and treatment-warranted ROP was present in 840 infants (6.6%) in GNN and 140 infants (7.6%) in NNN. In both cohorts, there were increasing rates of treatment-warranted ROP with each sepsis episode (no sepsis: 572 of 10 658 infants [5.4%] in GNN and 85 of 1492 infants (5.7%) in NNN; 1 episode: 190 of 1738 infants in GNN [10.9%] and 29 of 293 infants [9.9%] in NNN; 2 episodes: 53 of 314 infants in GNN [16.9%] and 13 of 49 infants [26.5%] in NNN; 3 episodes: 25 of 84 infants [29.8%] in GNN and 3 of 10 infants [30.0%] in NNN). After adjusting for multiple confounders in the GNN dataset, the number of sepsis episodes was associated with ROP and treatment-warranted ROP compared with 0 episodes (1 episode: adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.44 [95% CI, 1.27-1.63]; P < .001 and OR, 1.60 [95% CI, 1.31-1.96]; P < .001, respectively; 2 episodes: OR, 1.81 [95% CI, 1.35-2.42]; P < .001 and OR, 2.38 [95% CI, 1.68-3.37]; P < .001, respectively; 3 episodes: OR, 4.39 [95% CI, 2.19-8.78]; P < .001 and OR, 3.88 [95% CI, 2.29-6.55]; P < .001, respectively). These associations were confirmed for any ROP by propensity score matching (for example, the aOR with propensity score matching was 1.76 [95% CI, 1.54-2.02]; P < .001 for 1 episode vs 0 episodes and 1.58 [95% CI, 1.12-2.22]; P = .007 for 3 episodes vs 0 or 1 episode). In the NNN dataset, surgical NEC was associated with treatment-warranted ROP (multivariable analysis: aOR, 3.37 [95% CI, 1.78-6.37]; P < .001)., Conclusions and Relevance: This study found that in the large-scale GNN cohort, recurrent culture-proven sepsis was associated with ROP and treatment-warranted ROP in infants born at less than 29 weeks.

Competing Interests: Die Autorinnen/Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht.