Chandigarh, Nov 13 (IANS): The PGI's Advanced Eye Centre here received as many as 23 people with firecracker injuries in the past 48 hours, the hospital said on Monday.

The patients comprised 18 men and five women. Of them, 10 were less than 14 years, the youngest being just six years old.

In 2022, a total of 40 patients with burn injury in eyes were reported in the Advanced Eye Centre. The hospital said this time 14 patients were from tricity – Chandigarh 10, Mohali one and Panchkula one, and the rest from neighbouring states -- Punjab (three), Haryana (six) and Himachal Pradesh (two).

Of the lot, 13 patients were bystanders, while the 10 were bursting crackers themselves.

Out of 23 patients, seven eyes have open globe injuries and needed emergency surgeries. Sixteen had closed globe injuries and 13 of these had serious injuries.

Three of them have either minor injuries or skin injuries and were managed conservatively.

"We have comparative data of the previous three years and we feel it was comparatively lesser this Diwali," the PGI said in a statement. In 2021, a total of 15 eye injury patients were reported, while in 2020 there were 27 patients.