- Design
- Retrospective observational case series, single tertiary centre
- Population
- 20 eyes of 18 patients with carbide-gun thermochemical burns
- Primary outcome
- Epithelial healing, visual acuity and complications at 3 months
- Effect
- All healed (mean 22.5 days); logMAR 1.77 to 0.77; repeat graft 21%
A tertiary eye centre in India reported 20 eyes of 18 patients with acute thermochemical burns from carbide guns used during Diwali. All were male, with a mean age of about 20, and most injuries were Dua grade III.
All eyes had immediate irrigation, standard medical therapy and early overlay amniotic membrane transplantation. Every eye re-epithelialised, at a mean of 22.5 days. Mean vision improved from logMAR 1.77 to 0.77 at three months, and pain scores fell from 6.05 to 1.16. One in five eyes needed a repeat graft. The one eye that presented late progressed to phthisis bulbi.
Carbide guns combine a chemical and a thermal injury, often in teenagers and young men holding the device close to the face. With Diwali approaching, eye casualty and general emergency departments should expect them. The series is small and uncontrolled, but it supports early grading and early grafting for moderate to severe burns.
- Irrigate any chemical or carbide-gun eye injury immediately, before referral or detailed examination
- Grade severity using limbal and conjunctival involvement, as in Dua's classification
- Refer moderate to severe burns urgently for consideration of early amniotic membrane grafting
- Warn families about carbide-gun eye injuries before the festival season
Why it matters
Carbide-gun burns cluster around Diwali, and the one eye lost in this series was the one that arrived late.
Don't overread it
A small uncontrolled case series — it does not prove amniotic membrane grafting is better than medical therapy alone.
The statistics, in plain English
A logMAR improvement from 1.77 to 0.77 is about ten lines on a chart — from counting fingers to around 6/36. The series had no control group, so it shows outcomes with this approach, not that grafting beat medical treatment alone.
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