La dangerosité du Flash-Ball®Â : cas rapporté d'un traumatisme crânio-encéphalique et revue de la littérature

For two decades, Flash-Ball® is commonly used by police forces in France as a sub-lethal weapon. Injuries due to Flash-Ball® are regularly relayed in media but remain poorly described in the literature. However, we report the case of a healthy 34-year-old male victim of a Flash-Ball® shot outside a sporting fixture. This young man presented serious craniocerebral injuries with a left temporal fracture, moderate cerebral oedema, fronto-temporal haemorrhagic contusion along with an extra-dural haematoma and subarachnoid haemorrhage requiring neurological and rehabilitation care for two months leaving important sequelae. Although the risk is obviously lower than with firearms, authors report a case demonstrating that Flash-Ball® may cause serious physical injuries particularly after a headshot but also death.