CASE REPORT


Retained Foreign Body in a Diabetic Patient’s Hand



Frank Liaw1, *, Odhrán Murray1, Yan Yu Tan2, Timothy Hems1
1 Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Trauma & Orthopaedics, Glasgow, Scotland
2 Royal Stoke University Hospital, General Surgery, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Newcastle, England


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Creative Commons License
© 2018 Liaw et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Trauma & Orthopaedics, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, 1345 Govan RD., Glasgow, Scotland, Tel: +01412011100; E-mail: frankliaw@doctors.org.uk


Abstract

Background:

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy puts patients at increased risk of acute injury by foreign bodies and also contributes to delayed presentation and diagnosis.

Case report:

We describe a 57-year-old patient with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes who presented with a three-week history of worsening swelling and erythema in the metacarpophalangeal joint of his left thumb. He denied any previous trauma or injury and was initially treated with intravenous antibiotics. Subsequent imaging revealed septic arthritis and osteomyelitis secondary to a retained foreign body, which was surgically removed in theatre.

Conclusion:

This is the first reported case of a retained foreign body in the hand of a diabetic patient, and demonstrates the importance of early radiological imaging of peripheral limb injuries in high-risk patients.

Keywords: Diabetic neuropathy, Foreign body retention, Osteomyelitis, Diabetes mellitus, Case report.