Doctors Remove Needle Lodged Inside Man's Nasal Cavity Near His Brain

Doctors have successfully taken out a needle from a 50-year-old man's nasal cavity through a risky surgical procedure. The foreign object, which was lodged near the patient's brain, has been removed via craniotomy.

The procedure was carried out by a four-member medical team from the Institute of Neurosciences in the Indian city of Kolkata, reported News 18.

"The man came to us with one day's history of bleeding from the nose following which he was admitted, a senior doctor of the medical team said as per the outlet. "When he came to us, he was drunk, and we had no clue if he had an injury or somebody had hit him. So, we decided to conduct a CT scan of his skull that showed that a needle extended from his nose till his brain."

According to the doctor, the man was fully conscious and clinically well, despite having the metallic object inside his nasal cavity. "He was talking normally, moving upper and lower limbs as usual and able to walk, eat and drink like a normal person," he told the outlet.

The medical team then did an angiogram to find out the exact root the needle was traversing from the patient's nose to his brain.

Afterward, the doctors decided to carry out a surgery during which the patient's skull was opened first, and then the needle was pulled out from his nose.

"It is important to do the craniotomy opening of the skull first so that the needle is pulled out from the nose and we can tackle any tearing injury that can occur to the major blood vessels inside the brain," the doctor told News 18.

The surgery had to be done immediately as the infection could have spread through the needle from the nose into the brain.

The patient recovered effectively after the surgery. He only had minimal issues like nosebleed, which was managed using ice packs.

"The main point to be noted in this case is that this is a foreign object and it is going through a relatively dirty area (the nose) and contaminating a very clean area, the cranial cavity (which contains the brain and all the major blood vessels)," the doctor further said.

The patient would require long-term follow-up in the form of a CT scan to rule out any brain abscess, a condition in which there's a painful collection of pus due to bacterial infection. He also needs to be checked to rule out any delayed development of an aneurysm or a bulge in a blood vessel, according to The Times of India.