All journals of patients admitted to the Eye Department, Ullevål hospital with the diagnosis ocular contusion were examined during three periods in the course of the 24 years from 1968 to 1991. The distribution of age, sex and number of patients in the different periods remained almost unchanged. The hospitalization period decreased from six days in the first period to two days in the last period, but this did not increase the incidence of complications. The number of working traumas was reduced, and traumas by violence remained unchanged. There was a large percentage increase in sport traumas, caused mainly by a ball, and these now account for more than 1/3 of all contusions. The prognosis was good in most patients.