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Published on: January 17, 2018
Endoscopic-assisted navigation-guided removal of long-standing metallic foreign body near to the sphenoid
Zhixu Liu1, Yanping Lin, Lei Zhang
1From the *Department of Oral and Cranio-maxillofacial Science, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University at Shanghai; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology at Shanghai, and †School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, Shanghai, China.
Purpose:
It is unusual to see a metallic foreign body having stayed at the temporal surface of the sphenoid greater wing for 2 decades. Because of the change of proximity anatomy and the difficult access to delicate structure, removal of this foreign body seemed challenging. The application of surgical navigation system combined with endoscopy from other directions could reduce damage to the surrounding tissues during the removal and lower the risk.
Results:
Computed tomographic scan on the head indicated that finalposition was the temporal surface of the sphenoid greater wing posterior to the lateral orbital wall. To relieve the patient from sustaining pain caused by the metallic foreign body, surgical navigation system combined with endoscopy was adopted to remove the foreign body. Two different incisions were made to place the probe of the navigation and the endoscope respectively, in which way we could get a better view of the anatomic structures when reaching the metallic foreign body. The patient's problem was solved safely and efficiently. No sequela was observed.
Conclusions:
In case of complicated anatomic structure, surgical navigation system combined with endoscopy from another direction proved to be a practical and safe method to remove foreign bodies.
