man brushes with death.
By impactEDnurse • Jan 29th, 2008 • Category: ectopics
It never ceases to amaze me how the human brain can be simultaneously such a fragile and such a resilient organ.
For some, the smallest of inter-cerebral bleeds or space occupying lesions can result in catastrophic or life altering sequelae.
Others seem to happily bounce along after sticking all sorts of household objects into their craniums.
Our first brush with death was in the man who hammered 11 nails into his head, now, we present a case report published in the Acta Neurochirurgica :
The authors report a case of penetrating head injury that presented with a deceptively mild complaint. To our knowledge, it is the first report of a paint brush penetrating the brain. The patient reported being punched in the left eye and presented with a minor headache, swelling around the left orbit, a small cut on the cheek and slightly reduced left eye abduction. After radiological evaluation, a penetrating head injury was diagnosed.
Under general anesthesia, through a lateral eyelid incision a 10.5 cm long paint brush, which had penetrated from the left orbit to the right thalamus, was removed. No post-operative infection was seen at six months follow-up. This brief report serves to highlight that penetrating brain injury can occur without neurological deficit and that a minimally invasive surgical approach was successful in avoiding any complications.
Hat tip to the consistently excellent: Mind Hacks.
impactEDnurse is also known as Ian Miller, a nurse with over 26 years experience working in a busy emergency department in, Australia. This site in no way reflects the opinions of that hospital.
All stories (although based on actual experiences) have been changed to protect patient confidentiality.
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