[Penetrating head and brain injuries with nonmetal foreign bodies]

Penetrating brain injuries (PBI) are common in neurosurgical practice. Most of them are civil or war-time missile and blast injuries. This type of trauma is widely presented in neurosurgical publication, textbooks and clinical evidence-based guidelines. At the same time, PBI by non-metallic foreign bodies are very rare. All the data are limited to case reports and small series of cases. Moreover, there are no clinical consideration on diagnosis, treatment, complication, outcome and prognosis of PBI by non-metallic penetrating brain injuries. In this review all the data are summarized to provide recommendations on the diagnosis and treatment of PBI by non-metallic foreign bodies.