Deployed ophthalmic workload in support of US and NATO operations in Afghanistan.

The rate of ophthalmic DNBI among deployed US, UK and coalition forces at BAF was 2.65% per year, of whom 97% were returned to duty (95% of all patients). We estimate that evacuation and loss to unit would increase from 5% to 36% without an ophthalmologist present. The low number of within-theatre aeromedical transfers suggests that the local presence of an ophthalmologist at a patient's deployed medical treatment facility affects access to deployed ophthalmic care.