Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present diagnostic problems encountered with foreign wood fragment which have stayed a sufficient length of time become immersed in tissue fluid. A 47 year-old man initially had a wood fragment removed by a dentist. He suffered from trismus and continuous drainage from the stitch wound for about 6 months. Plain X-ray films, CT scans, and contrast dye studies with water soluble material gave negative results for foreign framents of wood. An exploratory operation revealed that swollen wood fragments penetrated into the skull base. A search for the basic data revealed that a wood fragment immersed in water had about the same absorption rate as human soft tissue. The authors recommend the use of oil soluble contrast dye in cases where there is suspicion of a long-stayed wood foreign-body which has had sufficient time to become immersed in tissue fluid.
