Citation

Kaushik V, Kawaja S, Bhalla RK, Pahade A. J. Emerg. Med. 2005; 29(4): 477-478.

Affiliation

Department of Otolaryngology, Royal Preston Hospital, Fulwood, Preston, United Kingdom.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jemermed.2005.02.018

PMID

16243211

Abstract

This is a case report of a 60-year-old woman who presented to the Emergency Department after an altercation with her husband. She had tried to 'swipe' her husband with a coat hanger, but missed. She did, however, manage to strike herself resulting in the hanger hooking through her nose.

The traumatic entry of a foreign body into the nose is uncommon. In such cases there is the possibility of occult intracranial or orbital penetration, particularly with non-metallic objects that are not readily seen on plain radiographs and CT scans.

Coat hanger injuries are probably rare. A search of the world literature yielded only one prior case report of a coat hanger injury [H.F. Moustafa and M.R. Ho, Coat hanger tip injury, J Emerg Med 17 (1999), p. 735].