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CASE REPORT
Imaging of foreign bodies: a radiological conundrum
  1. Michael Thomas1,
  2. Aadil Mumith2,
  3. Yaser Ghani3
  1. 1Medical Student, University College London Medical School, London, UK
  2. 2Department of Orthopaedics, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK
  3. 3Department of Orthopaedics, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, Stanmore, UK
  1. Correspondence to Michael Thomas, Mikeypthomas{at}gmail.com

Summary

A 24-year-old woman escaped a fire by jumping from the first floor of her house onto a temporary greenhouse. She was brought into the emergency department and later treated surgically. Three years after the initial episode a tender lump in her right thigh was found during regular follow-up for her acute myeloid leukaemia, for which she was in remission. This was treated as a suspicious mass due to her haematological history and further imaging was organised. This was later identified as a piece of the greenhouse that she had landed on 7 years previously. It is a common occurrence for foreign bodies to be missed on initial examination. Fortunately the patient recovered well from her physical wounds and, more importantly, remains humorous when reflecting on her almost 7-year long battle with a piece of plastic.

  • trauma
  • accidents, injuries
  • orthopaedics
  • radiology
  • orthopaedic and trauma surgery

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Footnotes

  • Contributors MT: wrote and edited the paper. AM: gathered data, wrote and edited the paper, operating surgeon. YG: wrote and edited the paper.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent Obtained.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.