- Design
- Single-centre ambispective case series
- Population
- 37 patients with carbide gun ocular trauma over 10 days, all male, median age 15
- Primary outcome
- Clinical profile and early visual and corneal outcomes
- Effect
- Severe burns 64.8%; mean BCVA logMAR 2.09 to 0.80 at 1 week
Over ten days in October 2025, one tertiary eye centre in India treated 37 patients with eye injuries from carbide guns, improvised devices that ignite acetylene from calcium carbide and water and were spread widely on social media during the festival season. The study is a single-centre case series.
All patients were male, median age 15. Every injury happened at home, mostly when the user looked into a device that had failed to fire. The right eye was affected in 89%. Severe burns, Dua grade IV to VI, were seen in 65%, with deep stromal calcium deposits and corneal oedema common.
Early amniotic membrane transplantation was done in 81%. Mean vision improved from logMAR 2.09 to 0.80 at one week and corneal oedema settled, but severe burns showed early signs of limbal stem cell deficiency by four weeks. Most eyelid burns healed with collagen sheets.
With Diwali approaching, eye departments should expect these injuries again. The series supports immediate irrigation with removal of calcium particles, early grading and early amniotic membrane for severe burns, and clear public warnings. Without a comparison group, it cannot prove that early amniotic membrane changed outcomes.
- Prepare emergency eye services for carbide gun injuries during the festival season.
- Irrigate immediately and remove retained calcium particles from the fornices.
- Grade the burn early and refer Dua grade IV to VI burns for urgent specialist care.
- Consider early amniotic membrane transplantation for severe thermochemical burns.
- Follow severe burns for limbal stem cell deficiency beyond the first month.
Why it matters
A new, cheap and widely shared device is blinding Indian teenagers each festival season, and most of the harm is preventable.
Don't overread it
This uncontrolled case series cannot show that early amniotic membrane improved outcomes compared with standard care.
The statistics, in plain English
LogMAR 2.09 is roughly counting fingers or worse; 0.80 is about 6/36. These are short-term averages in an uncontrolled series, and the early improvement partly reflects resolving oedema.
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