Intracranial migration of Foley catheter—an unusual complication

Abstract

Profuse nasal bleeding in cases of severe head injury is mostly associated with facial and skull base fractures and various methods have been tried to control such bleeding. Anterior nasal packing, producing a tamponade effect with a Foley catheter and other inflatable balloon devices are time proven methods. We describe a case of severe head injury with such fractures where a Foley catheter tamponade was attempted to control the severe nasal bleeding and the CT brain scan revealed inadvertent malposition of the catheter into the cranial cavity. This rare entity is described to highlight the potential danger associated with a proven method of controlling severe nasal bleeding and suggestions are outlined as to how to avoid such a mishap, along with a brief review of the literature.