Abstract
Sixty patients with eye injuries resulting from the use of airguns were admitted to a large eye hospital over an 11-year period. The typical patient was a young male teenager; 70 per cent of patients were under the age of 17, the age at which it is legally permissible to own an air weapon. In 4 cases the missile lodged in the ocular adnexae, in 18 cases there was a penetrating eye injury and in 38 patients blunt non-penetrating eye injury. The prognosis for visual recovery was poor especially following penetration of the globe; visual acuity was reduced to 6/60 or less in 40 per cent of all eyes and in 18 per cent the injured eye was excised.
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Presented at the Annual Congress of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom, April 1986.
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Moore, A., McCartney, A. & Cooling, R. Ocular injuries associated with the use of airguns. Eye 1, 422–429 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.1987.64
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.1987.64
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