Man discovers knife in chest after 8 years
A 44-year-old man made a disturbing discovery when he learned that there was a knife stuck in his chest that had been there for eight years.
According to a case report published by the National Library of Medicine, a man from Tanzania sought medical assistance after pus began to come out from his right nipple.
While he denied experiencing any chest pain, difficulty breathing, cough, or fever, he recalled that he was involved in a "violent altercation eight years ago, during which he sustained multiple cuts to his face, back, chest, and abdomen."
Following the incident, he got first aid from a primary health facility, and his wounds were also stitched up. However, he did not go through any body scans as there were no facilities in his area that could accommodate those procedures.
"He had an uneventful course over the next eight years until his current presentation," the report stated.
When the man was subjected to an X-ray, doctors found that a "retained foreign metallic object"—a knife—was stuck in his right chest.
They immediately performed surgery on the patient and carefully extracted a "metallic knife blade" that was "surrounded by pus and necrotic tissue."
The man was subsequently monitored after the operation before being discharged on the tenth day. Despite noting that he "recovered well" after the surgery, the researchers feared that there was a "considerable risk that the retained knife could lead to a fatal outcome."
"Large retained intrapulmonary foreign bodies are associated with complications such as inflammation, tissue necrosis, and abscess formation, as seen in our patient. However, our patient survived for eight years without experiencing any overt symptoms," they stated.
"The prolonged asymptomatic period likely resulted from the body's ability to encapsulate the foreign body within a fibrous capsule, limiting inflammation and tissue damage. This mechanism, seen in similar cases, helps contain foreign materials and delay clinical manifestations," they added.
However, they noted that this adaptive response can conceal "serious complications."
The report emphasized the need for "increased awareness and improved protocols for trauma management, safe surgery and safe anaesthesia in low-resource settings" and how patients should be "promptly referred to higher-level healthcare facilities capable of providing comprehensive diagnostic and surgical care."
