Clinical Outcomes after Ocular Trauma with Orbeez Gel Pellet Projectiles

Ocular trauma is a leading cause of preventable vision loss worldwide. 1 Negrel A.D. Thylefors B. The global impact of eye injuries. Ophthalmic Epidemiol. 1998; 5: 143-169 Crossref PubMed Scopus (485) Google Scholar In studies examining sports-related ocular injury, paintball and air guns were shown to confer the greatest risk for visual impairment. 2 Haring R.S. Sheffield I.D. Canner J.K. Schneider E.B. Epidemiology of sports-related eye injuries in the United States. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2016; 134: 1382-1390 Crossref PubMed Scopus (44) Google Scholar More recently, gel blaster guns have been used to fire Orbeez (Spin Master) and similar gel pellets made of superabsorbent polymers that, when rehydrated with water, expand to around 6 to 8 mm in diameter while becoming soft and pliable. In 2022, the Orbeez challenge began trending on the popular social media platform TikTok (ByteDance). This consisted of shooting rehydrated gel pellets at people, oftentimes unsuspecting strangers. In contrast to paintballs or air gun pellets, shooting gel pellets was depicted as being relatively safe and harmless because of their soft texture. This is a case series describing ocular injuries observed after trauma resulting from gel pellet projectiles.