Strangulation of the Uvula By Hair Wrapping

Abstract

A 13-month-old male presented with a hair wrapped around his uvula. The entwined hair subsequently caused autoamputation of the distal uvula. Although a non-accidental etiology has been suggested for some cases of hair strangulation of appendages, this case indicates accidental strangulation of body parts is possible.

Uvula Strangulation: A Rare Case of Hair Thread Tourniquet Syndrome

“…The child was discharged and reviewed 48 hours later by which time the distal tip of the uvula had self-amputated. They stated although this was sub-optimal, there were no long-lasting sequelae from the loss of the distal uvula [2].…”

“…It was first described in 1612 by Guillemeau and first appeared in the literature in The Lancet in 1832 [1]. It has multiple pseudonyms such as hair wrapping, hair tourniquet, and hair thread constriction but the term hair thread tourniquet syndrome was first used by Barton et al in 1988 [1,[2][3][4]. Hair thread tourniquet syndrome is described as when hair (or textile thread) wraps around one or multiple distal appendage/s with an end arterial supply, acting as a ligature causing partial or total circulation loss to the distal part.…”

Tourniquet syndrome?accident or abuse?

“…The affected children were mostly neonates [4,11,15,21,28]. One unusual report concerned the strangulation of the uvula by a hair in a 13-month-old child [23]. In most cases an accidental origin was suspected due to the lack of another explanation.…”

“…Most tourniquet syndromes reported describe strangulations of the penis or digits. Only a few cases concerned entanglements of the uvula or clitoris [23,30,34,40]. Therapeutic techniques are mentioned in some surgical textbooks [19].…”

Untitled

“…[3] Literatürde ilk defa McNeal 1987 yılında "Clinical Pediatrics" dergisinde uvulaya saç telinin dolanması ile turnike sendromunu uvulada tanımlamıştır. [4] McNeal bu olgu sunumunda, vücut uzantılarının saç teli ile strangulasyonunun kaza sonucu gelişebileceğini rapor etmiştir. Ancak McNeal'in bu olgu sunumunda ve diğer benzer saç-turnike sendromlarında strangulasyona neden olan materyalin saç teli olduğu gözden kaçırılmamalıdır.…”