Broken Knife Blade Completely Penetrating the Humerus: A Case Report and Literature Review

Abstract

We present a case of a 23-year-old male patient who presented with a blade knife completely wedged and penetrated on his humerus after a stab wound to his left upper extremity. On palpation, a foreign body was palpated under the skin on the deltoid area. The blade was stuck in the bone, so the surrounding bone tissue was osteotomised until the blade was released. The patient evolved favorably, and at three months follow up, he has a full functional recovery of his arm. Stab wounds are prevalent in emergency departments; however, stab wounds with bone involvement have rarely been reported in the literature. When encountering a blade stuck in bone tissue, removing the blade while avoiding orthopedic, neurological and vascular injuries should be the main goal of the treatment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the third reported case of an intraosseous foreign body in the humerus secondary to a stab wound.

Keywords

• knife wound
• stab wound
• bone injury