Abstract
Foreign body impaction in the head and neck region may result from either a traumatic or an iatrogenic injury. Penetrating neck injuries with impacted foreign bodies are of special concern as the neck contains many vital structures. Hence, early detection and removal of the foreign bodies is imperative to prevent life threatening complications. Here, we report a 50-year-old male patient with a very small sharp metallic foreign body impacted in the soft tissue of the neck. The patient underwent wound exploration under local anaesthesia and the metallic foreign body was removed. We report this case due to its rarity and also to highlight detailed history and clinical examination always needed for better outcome of the patient.
Highlights
A majority of the lacerations cases seen in the emergency department are caused by penetrating sharp metal objects [1]
Penetrating neck injuries with impacted foreign bodies are of special concern as the neck contains many vital structures
We report a 50-year-old male patient with a very small sharp metallic foreign body impacted in the soft tissue of the neck
Summary
A 50-year-old male, welder by profession, presented to the Ear, Nose , throat outpatient department with complaints of constant neck and throat pain for the past 5 days. He gave no history of upper respiratory infection, breathlessness or foreign body ingestion. The patient was taken to a local hospital where he was told that he had sustained a small laceration on his Figure 1: 0.5*0.5 cm swelling in front of the neck. On investigation with radiograpgh soft tissue neck antero-posterior and lateral view, a radio-opaque foreign body, measuring about 2 mm, was found at the level C6-C7 and 3 mm deep from skin (Figure 2), above the supra-sternal notch. The post-operative X-ray soft tissue neck antero-posterior and lateral view showed no foreign body
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