A rare case report of acquired rubber band syndrome due to an unnoticed rubber band on a baby’s ankle

Abstract

We report a case of a 7-month-old girl who presented with 2 months history of redness and swelling syndromes around the left ankle. The local hospital diagnosis of left ankle soft tissue infection and gave antibiotic treatment. However, her symptoms were failed respond to the antibiotic treatment and suggested to transfer to our hospital. We gave this girl a detailed physical examination, when opening the ankle crease a hidden rubber band was found and the surrounding soft tissues were lacerated. As a result, the child was taken to surgery to remove the band and repair the lacerated structures and her postoperative recovery was well. A rubber band worn for decorative purpose or accidently by the child is sometimes missed by the parents and remains long unnoticed. For the clinical features of a linear constricting scar around the wrist or ankle in the presence of a swollen syndrome, it should always alert the clinician to the possibility of a forgotten band around the joints. This appears to be the first case of acquired rubber band syndrome reported occurred on children's ankle.

Case report: Tunneling foreign body in the metatarsal bones of a dog

“…Focal osteolytic changes consistent with ischemic necrosis in a tubular or tunneling pattern, boney remodeling, regional periostitis, poor progression of lysis or periosteal reaction on repeat radiographs, and soft tissue swelling were noted in the referral radiographs. These findings are consistent with previous reports of rubber band syndrome in distal limbs of humans and animals (1,3,5,7,8,10,14,15,18,19).…”

“…This is mainly reported in India, where ceremonial or religious bands are tied around wrists and ankles and forgotten (1-3, 7, 8). In humans, cases of rubber band syndrome present with pain, edema, non-healing wounds, draining tracts, and decreased function of the limb (1,2,7,8,12,16,18,19). There is limited literature describing this syndrome in animals, with the majority of reports including cervical foreign bodies in four dogs (4,6,13,17) and one cat (11).…”

A Case Report of Osteomyelitis of Lower End of Tibia and Fibula as a Complication of Elastic Rubber Band Syndrome (Dhaga Syndrome)

“…This syndrome was first described by Hogeboom in 1965 [ 10 ], since then only few cases were reported, most of them from Indian subcontinent as it is a part of the tradition to tie a sacred thread (Dhaga) around the limb in children, which when left for prolonged duration may cause the complications of compartment syndrome or osteomyelitis as in this case, leading to mutilated limb.…”

“…There will be reepithelialization of the skin over the band after due prolonged duration of time, mimicking a skin crease or constriction band clinically [ 9 ]. So far, the cases reported were of upper limb around the wrist [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ], and only one case was reported to be around ankle [ 10 ] which was of superficial compression with soft-tissue infection. In this article, we report a case of embedded elastic rubber band, which was buried deep into the tibia and fibula leading to osteomyelitis of both bones as sequelae of misdiagnosis and treatment suspecting to be a simple constriction band.…”

The Dhaga Syndrome: An Important Differential of Acquired Constriction Band around the Wrist in India

“…Stephens [1] in 1961 and till date very few case reports have been published (Table 1) [2][3][4][5][6][7][8].…”