Abstract
Purpose :
The purpose of this study is to report demographic data and outcomes among pediatric patients with ocular trauma due to toy guns with projectiles. Toy guns with projectiles include toys such as BB guns, airsoft guns, pellet guns, dart guns, etc. There have been studies in the past which have reported demographic data specific to one of these categories of toy guns, this study has been conducted to assess the safety of all projectile toy guns.
Methods :
Data were computed from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), maintained by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Using product code 1399 (toy guns with projectiles) we were able to analyze injury data from 2010-2019 weighted to represent the US population. We restricted our analysis to include children aged 0-20 and analyzed eye injuries specifically. Our analysis included diagnosis of injury, location of injury, race, sex, month, day of the week, as well as disposition. We further subdivided our data by age (0-9 and 10-20) as well as analyzed the data by gender.
Results :
There were a total of 6,617 cases included in the NEISS database for ocular trauma between 2010 and 2019. The more common age group was aged 0-9, making up 61.1% of those included in the study. Males were also more commonly injured, making up 79.3% of those in the study. By far the most common diagnosis was ocular contusion (51.5%), other diagnoses included hematomas, laceration, sprain, hemorrhage, conjunctival trauma, and other (encompassing all other diagnoses). The most serious cases resulted in an open globe injury, in 1.5% of all cases, and all were in the 10-20 age subgroup. 92.1% of cases were treated and released within the same visit. Of the remaining 7.9% of patients, 7% were triaged and transferred to another facility. The most common time of the year for ocular injury with toy guns was December, with 18.7% of cases occurring during this month, followed by November with 9.7% of cases. Saturday and Sunday had the highest number of eye injuries to the ED with toy guns, together the weekend accounted for 46.3% of all injuries.
Conclusions :
Toy gun injuries were more common among young male patients. Injuries in the last decade were more commonly seen in the month of December and presented to the ED more frequently during the weekend (Saturday and Sunday). Only 1.5% of injuries were severe with OGIs and were seen among older children (10-20).
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.