Traumatic globe luxation in a 6–year–old girl playing with a tube of wrapping paper

Abstract

A 6-year-old girl was playing by herself with a tube of gift wrap just before the winter holidays. In a panic, she came upstairs from the den with a protruding right eye. When used as a make-believe telescope, the tube of wrapping paper was the perfect diameter to fit within the orbit's bony limits and around the globe. A small force to the tip of the tube held up to the eye was sufficient to propel the eyelids backward while luxating the globe forward. Visual acuity in the eye deteriorated within 2 hours but the vision loss was reversed entirely with prompt reduction under general anesthesia. While not intended as such, the gift-wrap tube has long been a popular play instrument for children around the holidays. This case illustrates the risk of luxating an eye with a gift-wrap tube and the benefits of prompt reduction of a traumatically luxated globe with traumatic optic neuropathy.