Injury Pattern of the Stingball

The stingball is a “maximum effect device” delivering up to four stimuli for psychological and physiological effect, including rubber pellets, light, sound, and an optional chemical agent. The purpose of this case report is to describe the injury patterns of a less-lethal weapon that has been in use for over 20 years. Although the stingball has been available for many years, there is very little experience with it in the medical community. We describe the case of an inmate at Los Angeles county jail brought to LAC+USC Emergency Department after sustaining injuries from the deployment of a stingball to break up a jail riot.