Knife blade lodged in a man’s belly mysteriously ‘floated’ to the other side of his body without causing damage

X-ray of the knife blade stuck in the man's abdomen — An X-ray revealed that the blade had moved from the fitting to the left aspect of a person’s stomach after he was stabbed. (Picture credit score: Nepal, A, Rajbhandari A P., et al. (2023). doi:10.7759/cureus.44575 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/))

A person bought stitched up after being stabbed with a knife — however the subsequent day, he discovered that the practically half-foot blade was nonetheless in his stomach.

The person in Nepal had been stabbed within the upper-right stomach throughout a battle, which he poorly remembered because of being drunk. After the stabbing, the 22-year-old was taken to a “native medical store,” the place a well being care employee apparently closed up his wound with out checking if any a part of it was nonetheless caught in his stomach and despatched him on his means, in accordance with a case report printed Sept. 2 within the journal Cureus.

A day later, the person went to the emergency division as a result of he had delicate, steady ache in his lower-left stomach. At first look, the person did not have any swelling or signs that urged gastrointestinal points, like nausea, diarrhea or constipation, though he did have a sutured wound on his proper aspect and tenderness above his left hip. Nor did he have indicators of peritonitis, a situation by which the internal lining of the stomach cavity turns into infected, which might occur after the tissue is injured in a stabbing.

The medical doctors took an X-ray of the person’s stomach and located one thing “uncommon and spectacular”: The 5.9-inch (15 centimeters) blade from the assault was nonetheless floating in his stomach and had “wandered” from one aspect to the opposite, but not one of the surrounding organs have been severely injured, his medical doctors reported.

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There was, nonetheless, a small, 0.4-inch-long (1 cm) lower on the entrance of his liver. On condition that the liver is situated within the upper-right stomach, this harm was doubtless from the preliminary assault, the authors wrote.

Stab accidents to the stomach are frequent, however it’s uncommon to see an object like a blade retained contained in the physique afterward, the authors famous. Specifically, instances of knife blades remaining within the physique are few and much between and have been extra prone to be discovered within the chest than within the stomach.

The extracted knife blade next to a 10 ml syringe for comparison

The knife blade after it was surgically eliminated, pictured alongside a (10 milliliter) syringe. (Picture credit score: Nepal, A, Rajbhandari A P., et al. (2023). doi:10.7759/cureus.44575 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/))

Nevertheless, there have been stories of individuals consuming sharp objects — resembling clasp knives, blades and needles — that then someway migrated by their our bodies.

Upon discovering the blade within the man within the new report, his medical doctors surgically eliminated the weapon. The affected person made a full restoration and was launched from the hospital 5 days later.

It is unclear why the blade wasn’t noticed by the person’s preliminary well being care supplier, though the authors wrote that it could have been as a result of “no one suspected there could possibly be any retained overseas physique contained in the stomach cavity.” They added that essentially the most “wondrous half” of this case — the best way the blade floated by the stomach with out damaging any organs — additionally stays a thriller.

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