New Delhi: Doctors at AIIMS on Wednesday
successfully removed an long wooden splinter that had pierced
into the eye and the brain of a child, who carried it for two
years and miraculously did not develop any infection.
11-year-old Varun (name changed) a resident of Jammu
had lost sight in the left eye after an eight centimetre long
and two centimetre thick wooden splinter entered between the
eye and skull and pierced through the brain, when he fell face
forwards on a long wooden stick.
He was taken to a local hospital where doctors removed
the superficial portion, leaving the deeper portion inside the
brain.
"It is an extremely unusual case. This child harbored
this wooden piece for two long years with practically no side
effects. In the surgery we extracted the wooden piece that was
as long as the middle finger. It was sticking out from between
the upper portion of the left eye ball and the skull," Dr P
Sarat Chandra, associate professor, Neurosurgery, AIIMS said.
He said, "This (the wooden piece) was going through
temporal lobe, cavernous sinus and was reaching till the brain
stem, missing the internal carotid artery by a few
millimetres."
Dr Chandra said, "The cavernous sinus is a large pool
of blood at the base of the skull for venous drainage and the
internal carotid represents the major artery supplying the
brain and it is almost like a miracle how he was unaffected."
Recalling the episode that happened two years ago the
boy`s mother said, "He was seated on a stone when it happened.
He fell off from the stone and landed face forwards on the
long sharp piece of wood which pierced into his eye right into
the brain".
"With help from neighbours the portion that was hanging
out was removed and Varun was moved to the nearest hospital.
Doctors did not do much but bandaged the portion as it was
bleeding and gave enough medication," she said.
PTI
