A case of death of purulent meningitis caused by transorbital intracranial penetrating injury due to long-term residual bamboo chopstick

Abstract

This article reports a case of death caused by purulent meningitis after a long-term transorbital intracranial penetrating injury induced by a bamboo chopstick. A 53-year-old man was pierced with a bamboo chopstick into the left orbit, and the bamboo chopstick broke off. The man remained conscious after the injury but developed paroxysmal headaches. Multiple computed tomography, computed tomography angiography, and rhinoscopy detections revealed that a puncture tract had formed from the left orbit to the right edge of the brainstem through the skull base. However, there was no apparent brain injury or cerebrovascular rupture, thus excluding the possibility of a retained intracranial foreign body by the neurosurgeon. Therefore, the man only received symptomatic and conservative treatments. Unfortunately, the man was found dead one morning, 13 months later. Autopsy and histopathological examinations revealed that he died of purulent meningitis caused by a long-term residual intracranial bamboo chopstick. A review of the relevant literature regarding the diagnosis, including diagnostic values and limitations of different imaging technologies, and treatment of residual intracranial foreign bodies, revealed that this was a case of misdiagnosis, leading to delayed treatment. This case had an indirect causal relationship between the victim’s death and medical treatment. This article provides clinical strategies for diagnosing and treating such cases and a forensic perspective for identifying causes of deaths attributed to medical malpractices.