Unusual presentation of foreign body in the thigh - a case report

Foreign bodies in the thigh are uncommon. Rarer is the presence of a foreign body in the posterior compartment of the thigh following a wood puncture injury to the anterior thigh compartment. The purpose of this report is to highlight this unusual presentation. We present a six-year old boy presenting with a tumor-like mass in the posterior compartment of the right thigh thirteen months after a puncture injury to the anterior compartment of the right thigh. He sustained the injury while playing with a sharp wooden object. Part of the foreign body was expressed out while part of it was unknowingly left behind. The patient presented 13 months after with a mass in the posterior compartment of the thigh. He was promptly evaluated and he had exploration of the mass. A plain wooden foreign body was extracted which measured 6cm by 2cm. He made an uneventful postoperative recovery and has been followed up for more than twelve months without further symptoms. Adequate initial wound exploration with removal of all foreign bodies and necrotic tissues would have prevented this prolonged morbidity.