A woman with knife In situ of chest

Abstract

The violence can be physical, psychological or sexual. Physical violence can be by the use of sharp objects. Chest stab wounds with retained penetrating objects are rare. Here, we have reported a case with a knife impaled in her upper back who was treated successfully without any complications. A 35-year-old woman presented to our emergency department with an in situ knife at T4–T5 level. Neurologic examination revealed normal and bed side sonography reveals no free fluid in the abdomen, but lung sliding was disrupted on the left hemithorax without evidence of tamponade. A portable chest-x ray showed that the knife passes through an oblique track from right to left. The patient transferred to the operating room and the 50 cm knife removed without traumatic force. Limited thoracotomy with chest tube placement was done. We have reported a case report of an in situ knife at the upper back of a young woman who was successfully treated. The patient was stabbed in the upper back due to her husband's violence and the knife passes through an oblique track from right to left without any vascular injury. We stabilized the patient and used bedside sonography as a modality for diagnosis and decision making.