Foreign bodies in the foot

Case contributed by Bruno Di Muzio
Diagnosis certain

Presentation

Pain on left foot for weeks. Previous history of skin-penetrating trauma by glass a few weeks ago.

Patient Data

Age: 30 years
Gender: Male

CT Left foot

ct

There are two pieces of flat and dense foreign bodies within the muscular planes in the anterior plantar region of the left foot. The biggest one is partially involved by irregular calcification in keeping with a granulation process, which shows a bone spicule in continuation with the cortex of the second metatarsus bone. 

MRI Left foot

mri

MRI depicting again the foreign bodies within the plantar muscles (flexor hallucis brevis, lumbricals, and flexor digitorum brevis) and causing lesions to the flexor hallucis longus tendon and flexor digitorum longus tendon (second toe). 

Case Discussion

This case illustrates a self management after a skin-penetrating trauma, where the patient didn't look for medical assistance and treated the wounds by himself. After several weeks with persistent foot pain he came for evaluation and both CT and MRI images showed relatively large pieces of glass (foreign bodies) within the muscles in the plantar region affecting some of the flexor longus tendons. 

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