Recently, doctors at Foshan Fosun Chancheng Hospital (hereinafter referred to as "Zen Medicine") removed a sewing needle about 4 centimeters long from the body of a 67-year-old patient and lifted his body alarm.
Scary! 4 cm long sewing needle "lurking" in the body of the elderly
The patient, Chen Qiang (pseudonym), 67, felt pain in his left back a few days ago when he was lying down. Because he had previously suffered a stroke and had stroke sequelae such as limb sensory dysfunction, the brief and slight pain did not attract his attention.
While taking a bath, he found that he had a sewing line on his back, and he felt that something was wrong. Chen Qiang's family recalled that he had left a sewing needle on the bed board, and Chen Qiang's symptoms were suspected of being pierced into the body by the stitch, and the family immediately accompanied Chen Qiang to seek medical treatment.
Song Changshan, director of the department of thoracic surgery at the hospital, received Chen Qiang and conducted further examinations. Ct of the chest showed that Chen Qiang did have a sewing needle on his body, and the stitches had penetrated deep into the inner side of his shoulder blade and ribs on his back. Since the sewing needle has been pierced into the patient's back for several days, as the patient's upper limbs and back muscles move, the subcutaneous sutures have fallen off, the stitches have been displaced, and they need to be removed immediately.
The stitching needle has penetrated deep into the inner side of the shoulder blade of the patient's back and between the ribs
"Foreign bodies enter the human body and can travel with muscles, breathing, heartbeat and other movements. The stitches in the patient's body are close to the chest cavity, such as entering the chest cavity and piercing the large blood vessels of the lungs or heart, which will cause serious consequences. Song Changshan said that it is necessary to carry out emergency surgery for patients and remove sewing needles.
"If it is a little later, the needle will enter the chest cavity vertically, and with the movement of the breathing lungs, it can travel throughout the chest cavity, and at any time there is a possibility of stabbing the large blood vessels of the lungs, so we have to operate urgently." Song Changshan said.
Doctors accurately locate the "needle" in the body
Compared with finding a needle in a haystack, surgical needle removal in the body is not only difficult, but also very dangerous. Song Changshan introduced that the sewing needle may be further displaced during the operation and fall into the chest cavity, so that it is more difficult and more dangerous to find this needle. If the sewing needle is in the chest cavity, it may stab the large blood vessels in the heart and lungs, causing heavy bleeding and endangering the patient's life.
According to Song Changshan, the biggest difficulty in surgery lies in positioning, how to accurately locate the needle, not only to carry out accurate dissection surgery, but also not to expand the trauma, as far as possible in the case of minimally invasive to find the needle.
The surgical team led by Song Changshan performed a left chest wall stitch removal operation for Chen Qiang under general anesthesia. The surgery may seem simple, but due to the thick muscle layer on the back of the shoulder blade and the small diameter of the stitch needle, it has been displaced between the shoulder blade and the ribs, and it is not easy to successfully remove it.
In order to minimize local injury, Song Changshan was incised layer by layer according to the anatomical relationship, and the incision was reduced as much as possible for exploration. Due to the small diameter of the needle, the doctor cannot touch its position with his fingers to prevent cross-infection of the puncture, and can only clip it out with forceps. Due to the obstruction of the shoulder blades, it is difficult to see the specific location of the sewing needle, so during the operation, Song Changshan used the C-arm machine to find the specific location of the sewing needle, and then removed the stitch needle with a length of about 4 cm intact.
It is surgically removed in its entirety and is about 4 cm long
After the operation, under the careful care of the medical staff, Chen Qiang can go to the ground after waking up from anesthesia and has a good mental state. At present, Chen Qiang has recovered and been discharged from the hospital.
Song Changshan reminded the public that if they are accidentally stabbed by a foreign body, they should remain calm and try not to move. Because with the movement of the limbs, the foreign body will travel along the muscle space in the body, making it more difficult to remove. The foreign body may even damage important organs in the thoracic and abdominal cavity with displacement, causing greater damage. "It is very important to remove the foreign body as soon as possible and actively treat it." He said.
Text/Guangzhou Daily, Xinhua City Reporter: Gao Minhua Correspondents: Hu Hui, Li Ailing, Xing Ying, Xu Zi feast
Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng Editor: Lu Kaisheng