Patient chest radiography shows the bound blade in the middle of the chest
8 years earlier, the man had been stabbed in the back during an altercation. At the time, it received only superficial first aid treatment. For a long time, I did not know that there was a knife blade in the chest cavity or had health problems resulting from these lesions.
A 44-year-old man in Tanzania noticed he had pus dripping his chest. After 10 days, it went to the emergencies. I told doctors that I had no pain or difficulty breathing. Had no fever, and its Vital signs were normal.
This rare case is reported in a report in the National Library of Medicine.
When the doctors examined the man, they found that his ribcage on the right side of his chest was flattened in front and that his chest did not fully expand from this side when he inspired. They reported the pus “smelly”, which, as can be seen in images released in the report, was leaving a cavity under the nipple.
A radiography revealed a large knife metal blade housed inside the chest cavity.
The blade, which stretched from the back of the ribcage to the front, had entered the back of the man near his right -bother.
In the hospital, the man reported that, 8 years earlier, he had been stabbed in his chest, back, abdomen and face during a “violent altercation.” At the time, no image tests were performed, having received only surface treatment of first aid. For eight years, he had no health problems resulting from these injuries, he said.
The knife blade slid between the fifth and sixth ribs on the patient’s back and got stuck there, with the tip of the knife positioned between the third and fourth ribs in front of his ribcage.
A computed tomography showed consolidated fractures in its omlat and several ribs. Layers of pus and dead fabric surrounded the knife blade.
As it refers, a form of the body protecting itself against foreign objects is through a process called Fibrous capsule formationin which the immune system involves the object in collagen and other fibers to limit damage and inflammation in the surrounding tissue.
According to the report, such “Encapsulation” of the knife It is probably what allowed man to spend the next 8 years without knowing that there was a blade inside his chest.
The doctors then made a thoracotomyhaving cut the man’s chest wall to remove the blade. They drained the accumulated pus, washed the chest cavity with a sodium chloride solution, installed a drainage tube and finally sutured the wound.
The patient received antibiotics for seven days. On eighth day, doctors removed the drainage tube, and the man was discharged two days later.
As the report says, the man returned to the hospital for two follow -up consultations: one weeks after surgery, and one six weeks later. In both visits, was free of infection and there was no more complications.
Unique case
The truth is that after a traumatic injury to the chest, it is not unusual penetrating objects to be left behind in the chest cavity.
However, What makes this case unique is the size of the object. Most of the time, these foreign bodies are small ballistic projectiles, which are often difficult to locate and remove.
