Kolkata: A six-inch-long plastic strip, which had been lodged inside the right arm of a woman, was extracted after a series of tests and a prolonged period of diagnosis, leaving doctors surprised at a city private hospital. The 59-year-old patient had been experiencing excruciating pain and had pus flowing out from an injury in her arm following a fall two-and-a-half years ago, but had no apparent history of a foreign object getting inserted into her arm. Doctors at Charnock Hospital conducted repeated X-rays and an MRI of her right arm which revealed the plastic strip alongside the bone in her upper arm.A successful procedure was conducted to extract the 15-cm-long strip that extended up to her elbow. “She first visited the OPD after having been advised a surgery elsewhere but she was not convinced. We conducted several tests to be sure. Finally, an X-ray showed a linear foreign body in the subcutaneous plane extending up to the muscular region. But the exact nature of the foreign body could not be determined,” said Rajen Lohia, orthopaedic surgeon at Charnock who conducted the surgery with assistance from a general surgeon to remove the object.Lohia added that the X-ray was followed by an MRI with a sonogram which confirmed the presence of a foreign body and the formation of a sinus tract all around. “But there was thankfully no evidence of osteomyelitis and no sinus tract extending to the bone was noted,” added Lohia. The process of germs or bacteria entering the bloodstream and causing bone inflammation is termed osteomyelitis, said Lohia.The patient had previously visited multiple hospitals and undergone investigations that failed to reveal the object or provide relief. “She was counselled in detail regarding the need for a surgery, uncertainty of outcome without it and the possibility of persistent infection, after which the patient’s family decided to get her admitted and undergo the procedure,” said Lohia. It was during the course of her counselling that doctors at Charnock concluded that the object could be a piece of a plastic door frame that may have broken during her fall and penetrated her skin to get lodged beside the bone.“It indeed turned out to be a piece of the door that penetrated her arm. But since she could not recall any external object entering her arm, the resultant injury and pus formation could not be linked to a foreign body. But it kept her in pain and the injury refused to heal since the object was inside. The woman has recovered well after the surgery and her wounds have healed. She was discharged two days after the operation. The first OPD follow-up showed that she is on the way to a complete recovery,” added Lohia.
