US — Ars Technica
Doctors pull knife from man's eye that went through his brain—and he's fine now
Devices2 min read
A man in his 20s arrived at a UK hospital with a knife blade that had gone through his right eye and into his brain. Doctors removed the knife in emergency surgery, and he survived.
What happened
A man in his 20s came to a hospital in the UK with the handle of a knife sticking out of his face. The blade, about 15 mm wide, had gone through his right eye and into his brain. The tip stopped against the top of his skull. He was awake and could talk and move all four limbs. Doctors sedated him and put him on a breathing tube so he would not pull the knife out himself. Then they used scans to see the damage. Surgeons opened part of his skull and slid the blade out slowly. His right eye could not be saved and was removed.
Key facts
- The blade was about 15 mm wide and went through the right eye and into the brain.
- On the Glasgow Coma Scale, a test of how awake and responsive a person is, he scored 12 out of 15. This means a "moderate" brain injury, one point above "mild."
- The blade crossed the left frontal and temporal lobes of the brain.
- Doctors saw no major bleeding after the blade was removed.
Why the brain was so hard to treat
The blade passed near several important parts of the brain. It went in front of the corpus callosum, which links the two halves of the brain. It also came close to a major blood vessel, the left internal carotid artery, but doctors did not think it was damaged. A small branch of the middle cerebral artery looked pushed in by the knife. Because of these risks, doctors chose a careful method instead of cutting out the blade.
Why it matters
This case shows that a person can survive a very deep injury if doctors act fast and work as a team. It also shows why doctors may choose to remove a object slowly and with care. The report was published in BMJ Case Reports, a medical journal that shares unusual cases so other doctors can learn from them.
Glossary
- Glasgow Coma Scale
- A simple test that scores how awake and responsive a person is, from 3 to 15.
- corpus callosum
- A thick band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right halves of the brain.
- internal carotid artery
- A major blood vessel that carries blood to the front of the brain.
- middle cerebral artery
- A blood vessel that supplies blood to large parts of the side of the brain.