Nail foreign body

Case contributed by Andrew Murphy
Diagnosis certain

Presentation

Patient presented to ED with a plaster board nailed to his hand.

Patient Data

Age: 50 years
Gender: Male
x-ray

The patient had nailed himself to a board, nail traverses soft tissues of the distal thumb with no bony involvement.

Case Discussion

'En face' or 'end on' projections are important when assessing the damager something like a nail has on bony structures; although, in this case, due to the plaster board still attached to the patient this may have been difficult. 

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