Nerf gun-related ocular damage a burden on health care, patient resources
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Key takeaways:
- Forty-seven percent of patients with Nerf-related hyphema had visual acuity worse than 20/40 at a follow-up visit.
- Sixty-nine percent of cases occurred in children younger than 10 years old.
NEW ORLEANS — Nerf guns can cause ocular damage, contributing to the burden on health care and patient resources, according to a poster presentation at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting.
“We started this because at Vanderbilt Eye Institute, we started to see a lot more cases of children coming in with hyphema, a collection of blood in the anterior chamber,” Yangyiran Xie told Healio/OSN. “It turns out those cases are related to this toy gun called Nerf gun. It’s a foam projectile gun. People think it is safe — it is really not that safe.”
Xie and Dolly Ann Padovani-Claudio, MD, PhD, performed a retrospective cohort study of pediatric hyphema cases involving Nerf guns seen at Vanderbilt Eye Institute. They reviewed data from 354 hyphema cases, 32 of which were caused by Nerf guns. Data included IOP, visual acuity, total eye visits, days of suggested activity restrictions and prescribed medications. They also calculated the expected medical cost of the injuries.
Approximately 72% of the Nerf-related hyphema cases occurred in male patients, with 69% of the cases occurring in patients younger than 10 years old. Additionally, 47% of patients had visual acuity worse than 20/40 at some point during follow-up, with 10% of patients having visual acuity worse than 20/40 at their last recorded eye exam.
The total estimated medication cost and clinical care cost for the patients with Nerf-related hyphema were $5,876.08 and $15,342.17, respectively.
“It’s a significant amount of cost that can be avoided by either not using Nerf guns or wearing some sort of eye protection,” Xie said. “We’re talking about something that can be easily avoided but is causing a lot of trouble.”
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Xie Y, et al. The burden of traumatic hyphema secondary to Nerf gun injury. Presented at: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting; April 23-27, 2023; New Orleans.
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