CASE REPORTS   

Journal of Maxillofacial Trauma 2013 April;2(1):23-5

Copyright © 2013 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Endoscope assisted removal of embedded wooden foreign body in cheek in a two year female: report of an unusual case

Katarkar A. ¹, Modh D. ¹, Katarkar S. ², Jain A. ¹, Sapre A. ³, Shah P. R. ¹

¹ Department of ENT, C.U. Shah Medical College, Surendranagar, Gujarat, India; ² Department of Anesthesia, C.U. Shah Medical College, Surendranagar, Gujarat, India; ³ Department of Ophthalmology, C.U. Shah Medical College, Surendranagar, Gujarat, India

Foreign bodies left undetected in the tissues like cheek and maxillofacial region can result in serious sequel ‑ days, months or even years after initial trauma. Purpose of reporting this unusual case of two year old female child having embedded wooden foreign body in cheek presenting as abscess in emergency is to highlight the difficulties in detection of foreign bodies and discuss its clinical management and the unique way of endoscope assisted removal of the foreign body. Wooden foreign bodies and other non radiopaque foreign bodies can be missed by the initial care giver if a high degree of suspicion is not kept in case of small children as the history of the patient is often difficult to obtain. The endoscopic assisted removal was performed because the patient was a girl child and a facial scar by open exploration would have given a life time facial scar to the patient. This approach gave minimal external scar and at the same time maximum visibility of the object and allowed its non traumatic disengagement and removal possible.