Shlamovitz Gil Z, Gupta Malkeet, Diaz Jorge A
Department of Emergency Medicine, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-1777, USA.
J Emerg Med. 2009 Apr;36(3):239-41. doi: 10.1016/j.jemermed.2007.03.034. Epub 2007 Aug 29.
We present a case of a 40-year-old man who suffered chemical eye injury from the latex of Euphorbia tirucalli (pencil cactus), resulting in acute keratoconjunctivitis. The Euphorbia genus of plants contains numerous species widely distributed throughout all major continents, and therefore this may be a more common Emergency Department occurrence than previously thought.