Knife through brain: Patient recovers
A UK man survived a 15 mm blade piercing his eye and brain, though surgeons removed his right eye.
By Noor Phillips ·
Surgeons in the United Kingdom removed a knife that had pierced a patient’s right eye and traveled through his brain without killing him. The medical team detailed the procedure in a report published Friday in the BMJ Case Report.
The patient, a man in his 20s, arrived at the hospital conscious and alive. A 15 mm wide blade was embedded in his face, with the hilt visible outside and the tip lodged against the top of his skull. Imaging showed the blade passed through the left frontal and temporal lobes. It traveled in front of the corpus callosum and missed the left internal capsule. The blade sat near the left internal carotid artery but did not damage that vessel. A branch of the middle cerebral artery showed an indentation.
The man was agitated upon arrival. He scored 12 on the Glasgow Coma Scale, which indicates a moderate brain injury. He could open his left eye on command, speak while confused, and move intentionally when touched. His doctors feared he might pull the knife out himself. They sedated him, intubated his airway, and administered prophylactic treatments for bacterial infections, including tetanus.
The surgical team consulted multiple specialties before performing emergency neurosurgery. They chose a conservative approach rather than excavating the wound. The surgeons removed part of the skull to view the brain directly. They then used a pull-and-see method to slide the blade out. Once the knife was removed, doctors observed no signs of significant hemorrhaging. They cleaned and drained the brain wound before repairing the skull.
The man’s right eye sustained extensive damage. Surgeons removed the eye because it could not be saved. The report notes the patient is now fine.
