Key Takeaways
- Nearly two-thirds of firework-related eye injuries occurred in patients aged 18 years or younger.
- More than 70% of injuries were reported in July, with contusions being the most common injury type.
Firework-related eye injuries continue to send thousands of people to emergency departments in the United States, with children and adolescents accounting for the majority of cases and most injuries occurring around the Fourth of July holiday, according to an analysis of 20 years of national surveillance data.
Researchers analyzed 1,213 firework-related eye injury cases recorded in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System between 2002 and 2021, which corresponded to an estimated 41,708 emergency department visits nationwide. Males accounted for 71.8% of injuries. Overall, 62.0% occurred in patients aged 18 years or younger, with children aged 6 to 11 years accounting for 27.0% of all cases.
Contusions were the most frequently reported injury type, accounting for 39.9% of cases. The investigators noted that this finding differs from previous studies that identified thermal burns as the most common firework-related ocular injury.
Most injuries (70.1%) occurred in July. Although annual injury totals demonstrated a weak negative correlation over the study period, the trend was not statistically significant. Researchers observed notable increases in reported injuries in 2005, 2020, and 2021.
Reference
Jaber J, Pluenneke M, Huang A, et al. Epidemiology of Firework-Related Eye Injuries From 2002 to 2021. Cureus. 2026;18(2):e104122. doi: 10.7759/cureus.104122. PMID: 41890476; PMCID: PMC13016039.
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