Recent causes of subconjunctival hemorrhage.

PURPOSE: To assess the relationship between the incidence of subconjunctival hemorrhage (SCH) and age during each season of the year, and to examine recent risk factors for SCH.

METHODS: A total of 161 patients with SCH aged 1-94 years were involved in the study. The age, gender, medical history and ocular history were determined for all subjects.

RESULTS: The peak age of onset of SCH was between 61 and 70 years. Fourteen patients (77.7%) had trauma or contact-lens-induced injury, and 4 patients (22.3%) among the younger patients aged 0-40 years had an unknown etiology. Among the older patients aged 61-94 years, the chief risk factor for SCH was hypertension (47.5%), followed by unknown etiology (39.4%) and then diabetes (13.1%).

CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the major current risk factors for SCH are trauma and contact-lens-induced injury in younger patients, while hypertension is the main factor in older patients. The incidence of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis was decreased.