Brown-Sequard syndrome caused by a Kirschner wire as a complication of clavicular osteosynthesis

Abstract

A case of spinal cord injury caused by delayed migration of a Kirschner wire is reported. Some cases of distant injuries caused by bone wires, and acupuncture needles have been published, but this is the ®rst reported case of delayed thoracic spinal cord damage caused by the migration of a clavicular wire. A 22-year-old male patient was admitted with a clinical picture of spinal shock after performing physiotherapeutic exercises. Two months prior to this, the patient had undergone surgical treatment for a clavicular fracture in a di erent clinical center. Imaging showed a clavicular wire had migrated into the spinal canal. An early prescription of a spinal cord methyl-prednisolone protective treatment (NASCIS II), the surgical extraction of the foreign body and the rehabilitation exercises were the keys to a quick recovery.

Intrahepatic migration of Kirschner wire from hip: a case report

“…Similarly, migrations from shoulder, sternum and clavicle to the chest cage have been reported [2][3][4]. Even a case of migration from the spine to the clavicle, causing BrownSequard syndrome, has been reported [5]. Intra-abdominal migration of a broken Kirschner wire from the femoral neck in a case of epiphysiolysis capitis femoris has been reported by Lorenz et al [6].…”

A migrated knitting needle in a paediatric spine: case report

“…The clinical symptomatology of these cases in literature has been variable, ranging from being completely asymptomatic to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) fistulas to severe motor and sensory deficits [2,7]. There are even reports of Brown-Sequard syndrome from a needle or Kirschner wire migration following clavicular osteosynthesis [2,10]. Early removal of these foreign bodies from the spinal canal has been shown to be associated with good neurological outcome [11].…”

Kirschner wire migration from the clavicle to the cervical spine

“…The large majority of reports present displacements after clavicular fracture stabilization [6][7][8][9][10], acromioclavicular dislocations [11,12], and stabilization of fractures closer to the humerus. There have been cases reported of tip migration into the mediastinum, myocardium, lungs, esophagus and spinal cord [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”