[Pellet guns: a persistent threat to eyes]

Following a recent case of bilateral perforating ocular trauma by multiple pellets, the authors reviewed pellet traumatisms treated in the Emergency Department and operated on in the Ophthalmology Department of the Villeneuve-St-Georges Hospital over the past 15 years. At close range, pellet weapon shootings can generate lid, conjunctiva, and powder cornea tattoos; in these cases, the lesions are often unilateral. Shooting at longer range does not result in corneodermic tattoos, but because pellets scatter, binocular lesions frequently occur. The different lesions caused by these nonmagnetic foreign bodies are often very serious. An early, even very early, traumatic cataract is sometimes very difficult to treat in these polytraumatized eyes. The visual prognosis is more reserved, as the impact zones often involve the posterior pole and the macular area. The best recovered visual acuity is 30-35/20, with visual field alterations, but the injury to the eyeball by multiple pellets can generate globe atrophy. The authors stress the gravity of these ocular traumas, fortunately rarer but not completely eradicated since the law of May 6, 1995, which restricted the possession of these pellet guns.