DOI: 10.14260/jemds/2014/3011 ORIGINAL ARTICLE J of Evolution of Med and Dent Sci/ eISSN- 2278-4802, pISSN- 2278-4748/ Vol. 3/ Issue 29/July 21, 2014 Page 8051 PELLET GUN FIRE INJURIES IN KASHMIR VALLEY – CAUSE OF OCULAR MORBIDITY Wasim Rashid 1 , Nusrat Shaheen 2 , Imtiyaz A. Lone 3 , Sheikh Sajjad 4 HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Wasim Rashid, Nusrat Shaheen, Imtiyaz A. Lone, Sheikh Sajjad. “Pellet Gun Fire Injuries in Kashmir Valley – Cause of Ocular Morbidity”. Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences 2014; Vol. 3, Issue 29, July 21; Page: 8051-8058, DOI: 10.14260/jemds/2014/3011 ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE: To study the type and severity of ocular injuries in gun pellet victims. METHODOLOGY: It was a retrospective case series. The study was conducted in the department of Ophthalmology, SKIMC Medical College Bemina Srinagar. The study included gun pellet victims admitted in our department between January 2010 to September 2013. RESULTS: Total number of patients were 20 with 19 males and 1 female. Mean age of the subjects was 21.45 years. Ocular injury was unilateral in 17 cases and bilateral in 3 cases. The most common type of injuries encountered were hyphaema in 82.60% of eyes, followed by corneoscleral tear in 78.26% and vitreous hemorrhage in 47.82% of eyes. Out of the 23 eyes, 18 eyes (78.26%) had an open globe injury, while only 3 eyes (13.04%) had closed globe injury at presentation in our hospital. The most commonly performed surgery was corneoscleral repair in 18 eyes. Final corrected visual acuity remained unchanged in 34.78% and improved in 65.22% of eyes. About 47.83% of eyes had final visual acuity < 6/60. CONCLUSION: Gun pellet related ocular injuries are becoming increasingly common in Kashmir valley. In severely injured eyes the visual prognosis remained poor despite development of advanced micro-surgical techniques. The best preventive measure for such injuries involve reducing the level of violence in our society. KEYWORDS: ocular injuries, hyphaema, corneoscleral tear. INTRODUCTION: Ocular trauma once described as the neglected disorder 1 has recently been highlighted as a major cause of visual morbidity. Worldwide there are approximately 1.6 million people blind from eye injuries, 2.3 million bilaterally visually impaired and 19 million with unilateral visual loss, making ocular trauma the commonest cause of unilateral blindness. 2 Etiologically ocular injuries can be classified in to domestic, occupational, sports, road traffic accidents, iatrogenic, fights and assaults and war injuries. 3 Almost 100 years ago more than 70% of all serious ocular injuries occurred at workplace. 4 In the 1960s and 1970s road traffic accidents became the most common cause of serious ocular injuries. 5 In the 1980s sports and leisure activities became common cause of severe eye injury. 6,7 The home is now the most common location for eye injuries. 8 However bomb blast and battle field ocular injuries are becoming increasingly common in different parts of the world. 9,10 Ocular injuries following pellet gun fire has assumed alarming significance in Kashmir valley (India) over the past few years. To curb agitated mobs, the security forces fire pellet gun cartridges, considered to be a non-lethal weapon. A single pellet gun cartridge upon fire from pellet gun breaks into more than 500 small iron pellets which can penetrate any body tissue including eyes. An eye can thus receive one or multiple pellets and depending upon its velocity and distance can cause both penetrating and non-penetrating injury to the eye.