Rationale: Penetrating neck trauma has a mortality of 3% to 6% and is associated with serious complications, mainly due to the high density of vital structures in this area and the lack of corresponding protection from bone.
Patient concerns: A 55-year-old man who suffered neck trauma involving the parotid gland, caused by a rebar, after suffering a fall from the second floor of a building.
Diagnoses: Penetrating neck trauma.
Interventions: The patient underwent a neck exploration under general anesthesia in the emergency operating room and tracheotomy was performed prophylactically.
Outcomes: The foreign object was ultimately removed successfully with no complications.
Lessons: We concluded that computed tomography (CT) and three-dimensional reconstruction of the CT images can be a viable method to exclude macrovascular injury for patients who are in an emergency condition and are not eligible for computed tomography angiography (CTA). A chest tube could be used as an option for the removal of foreign bodies in the case of sharp or rough objects (such as spiral foreign bodies), when fully exposing the foreign body and its track.