True stories

Emergency medicine
Volume 171 - Issue 11

Breaking the rules: a thoracic impalement injury

Authors:  Carole L Foot and Pat Naidoo

Med J Aust 1999; 171 (11): 676-677.
Published online: 6 December 1999
Share: Share on Blue Sky Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share by email
True Story

Breaking the rules: a thoracic impalement injury

In the case of a patient with an impalement injury, the object should be removed in a controlled operating theatre environment. We report an 18-year-old man for whom this rule could not be followed. He was removed from a metal pipe transfixing his chest at the roadside.

Carole L Foot and Pat Naidoo

MJA 1999; 171: 676-677

Introduction - Clinical record - Discussion - References - Authors' details
- - More articles on Emergency medicine

Authors

  • Carole L Foot
  • Pat Naidoo

References

  1. Myers C. Fluid resuscitation. Eur J Emerg Med 1997; 4: 224-232.
  2. Vaslef SN, Dragelin JB, Takla MW, et al. Multiple impalement injury with survival. Am J Emerg Med 1997; 15: 70-72.
  3. Watson JM, Goldstein LJ. Golf club shaft impalement: case report of a zone III neck injury. J Trauma 1996; 41: 1036-1038.
  4. Kelly IP, Attwood SEA, Quilan W, et al. The management of impalement injury. Injury 1995; 26: 191-193.
  5. Rose EH. Massive foreign body impalement of the shoulder and chest wall. Ann Plast Surg 1990; 24: 451-454.
  6. Carragher AM, Sulaiman SK, Panesar KJS. Scroto-abdominal impalement injury in a skateboard rider. J Emerg Med 1990; 8: 419-421.
  7. Bajaj HN, Rao PS, Kumar B. Impalement injuries. Arch Ortho Trauma Surg 1989; 108: 58-59.
  8. Hyde MR, Schmidt CA, Jacobson JG, et al. Impalement injuries to the thorax as a result of motor vehicle accidents. Ann Thor Surg 1987; 43: 189-190.
  9. Odell JA, Whitton ID. Impalement of the chest by a reinforced steel rod. J R Coll Surg Edinb 1985; 30: 131-133.
  10. Ketterhagen JP, Wassermann DH. Impalement injuries: the preferred approach. J Trauma 1983; 23: 258-259.

More like this

View more