Serious air gun injuries in children: update of injury statistics and presentation of five cases.

There were over 70,000 injuries to children caused by air guns reported from 1981 to 1984. The majority of these injuries were minor; however, serious injury resulted in eight deaths. Reported injuries include corneal perforation, liver laceration, stomach and intestinal perforation, intracranial bleeding, cardiac perforation, and hemopneumothorax. Primary care physicians must be aware of the potentially serious or lethal nature of air gun injury and educate their patients accordingly. Legislation is also needed to restrict the sale of these guns, or increase the safety of air gun use. We report five cases of potentially life-threatening injury caused by air guns, three of which required emergency laparotomy.