Diagnostic and therapeutic role of ultrasound in soft tissue foreign bodies and associated complications: a pictorial essay

Abstract

Ultrasonography allows detection of a variety of soft tissue foreign bodies, including wood splinters, glass, metal, and plastic. Herein, we present a pictorial essay on diagnostic and therapeutic role of ultrasound in soft tissue foreign bodies with complications. Figure 1: A 45-year-old male with history of accidental metallic foreign body penetration in the right thigh 2 months ago came for ultrasound of the right thigh to know the exact location of the foreign body. Ultrasound with use of the endocavitary probe showed a brightly echogenic foreign body adjacent to the proximal right superficial femoral artery complicated by pseudo-aneurysm formation. CT angiography right lower limb confirmed the ultrasound findings. Figure 2 (A, B, C): Ultrasound of wooden soft tissue foreign bodies according to severity of symptoms at presentation. A. 42-yearold male with asymptomatic foreign body in the left palm at presentation. B. 7-year-old boy with mild to moderate pain and unsuspected foreign body in the calf. C. 22-year-old male with extensive soft tissue oedema in the left hand. Figure 3: Sonography of a broken needle tip. Figure 4: Sonography role for guidance of soft tissue foreign body extraction using hydrodissection. Ultrasound allows accurate and efficient detection of radio-opaque as well as radiolucent soft tissue foreign bodies and aids assessment of their associated complications along with image-guided foreign body removal. Ultrasound has emerged as the study of choice for detection and localization of soft tissue foreign bodies, for assessment of associated complications and for image-guided soft tissue foreign body extraction.

The use of ultrasonography in traumatic muscle lesions: A practical first-line imaging tool

“…Thus, direct radiographs should be obtained first, and then reverberation, comet-tail artifacts, or posterior acoustic shadows should be sought by US. Although foreign bodies are generally hyperechogenic, a hypoechoic halo can be observed around the foreign body due to granulomatous reaction in chronic cases [13,14]. In addition to US, direct radiographs were obtained for trauma regions in all of the penetrating traumas, and CT examination was performed in some of them in order to investigate the presence of any foreign body in the wound in our study.…”