Paley GL, Echalier E, Eck TW, Hong AR, Farooq AV, Gregory DG, Lubniewski AJ. Cornea 2016; 35(7): 1015-1018.
Affiliation
*Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO; and †Department of Ophthalmology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO.
PURPOSE: To report cases of acute globe rupture and bilateral corneal burns from electronic cigarette (EC) explosions.
METHODS: Case series.
RESULTS: We describe a series of patients with corneal injury caused by EC explosions. Both patients suffered bilateral corneal burns and decreased visual acuity, and one patient sustained a unilateral corneoscleral laceration with prolapsed iris tissue and hyphema. A review of the scientific literature revealed no prior reported cases of ocular injury secondary to EC explosions; however, multiple media and government agency articles describe fires and explosions involving ECs, including at least 4 with ocular injuries.
CONCLUSIONS: Given these cases and the number of recent media reports, ECs pose a significant public health risk. Users should be warned regarding the possibility of severe injury, including sight-threatening ocular injuries ranging from corneal burns to full-thickness corneoscleral laceration.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND), which permits downloading and sharing the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.