Impalement injury by glass shard with delayed colonic perforation

Pan Afr Med J. 2015 Aug 31:21:330. doi: 10.11604/pamj.2015.21.330.7676. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

A 66-year-old man experienced a traumatic injury after a fall on top of a glass tea table, which caused some superficial lacerations all around the body. He was examined in the emergency room by a physician. The physician could not feel any foreign body upon wound exploration and sutured the laceration. Fourteen months after the injury, he developed progressive abdominal pain. On emergency room and abdominal x-ray showed a foreign body, which a CT scan revealed as an intraabdominal glass shard. The glass presumably impaled his abdominal wall as a result of his previous traumatic injury. The patient underwent laparotomy, which revealed a large glass (16x1cm) perforating the transverse colon. It was extracted and the perforation closed with a lineal stapler. There was no need of bowel resection and the patient was discharged home nine days after the intervention.

Keywords: Impalement; delayed colonic perforation; glass.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Abdominal Pain / etiology
  • Accidental Falls
  • Aged
  • Colon / injuries*
  • Foreign Bodies / complications*
  • Glass
  • Humans
  • Intestinal Perforation / diagnosis*
  • Intestinal Perforation / surgery
  • Laparotomy / methods
  • Male
  • Wounds, Penetrating / diagnosis*
  • Wounds, Penetrating / surgery