Abstract

VARGAS-DOMINGUEZ, Armando; RODRIGUEZ-BAEZ, Alejandro; ORTEGA-LEON, Luis Humberto  and  ROMERO, Alberto. Foreign body (knife), asymptomatic for eight years. Cir. gen [online]. 2013, vol.35, n.1, pp.56-58. ISSN 1405-0099.

Objective: To inform on the case of a foreign body (knife) of 16 cm in length, which remained lodged in the thigh aymptomatically for 8 years, discovered by chance in a radiographic study. Setting: Third Level Health Care Hospital. Design: Case report. Description of the case: A 28-year-old patient, who eight years before was attacked with a knife while mounting a motorcycle. He felt the stabbing in the thigh, but was able to escape from the site on his vehicle, and went to a hospital where he was explored clinically but without any cabinet studies, the wound was sutured and the patient coursed without complications nor symptoms. Eight years later, he became aware of the foreign body when he had an X-ray taken of the thigh due to a slight trauma. Conclusion: Effective diagnostic methods to detect a foreign body are simple radiography, ultrasonography, CAT and MR imaging. Failure in identification can cause complications in the patient, either infectious ones or injuries to other anatomic structures, and could be a cause for liability demands.

Keywords : Foreign body; knife injury; asymptomatic injury.

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