Ocular trauma is a major public health problem worldwide and is considered the leading cause of monocular blindness [1], [2], [3]. It is a common cause of emergency department visits, accounting for 36.3% of ophthalmological consultations in the USA, 26.1% of ophthalmological consultations in France and 3% of all consultations in Chile [4], [5], [6].

In 1998, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a review of the global impact of eye trauma, noting that each year there are 55 million eye injuries that restrict activities for more than a day, 750,000 hospitalizations and 200,000 open eye injuries [1]. Eye trauma is also responsible for 19 million cases of unilateral blindness, 2.3 million cases of bilateral low vision and 1.6 million cases of bilateral blindness, representing a significant economic burden due to costs in treatment, hospitalization, family care and time lost from work or school [1], [7].

Ocular trauma usually affects young men, occurs at home or at workplace and most cases are treated on an outpatient basis [8], [9]; however, between 1.4 and 6.5% of patients are hospitalized [10], [11], representing the second leading cause of ophthalmological hospitalization in the USA [3], [12].

There are no studies in Chile evaluating the characteristics or incidence of ocular trauma hospitalizations. Using hospital discharges from Chile's Department of Statistics and Health Information (DEIS), the purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the epidemiological characteristics and trends of ocular trauma hospitalizations in Chile from 2001 to 2020.