Industrial Nail Gun Injury to the Anterior Skull Base: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Penetrating craniocerebral nail gun injury in a child: a case report

Penetrating craniocerebral injuries with a nail gun are extremely rare and even rarer in children. In this case, a 2-year-old boy, who was the youngest patient in the literature with an intracranial nail gun injury involving penetration of the right temporal lobe, was reported. The patient was evaluated by plain radiography and computed tomography. The nail was loosened and pulled gently out by creating a small craniotomy around the nail entrance. Although clinical characteristics and treatment methods of penetrating craniocerebral injuries were similar for reported in literature, the injury mechanism of presented case was different. Penetrating craniocerebral injuries with a nail gun are very dramatic situation, but mortality and morbidity are low. Without major vascular injury, a nail can be removed through a small incision. Penetrating injuries often occur accidentally in the pediatric age group, but the risk of child abuse should always be considered.

Craniocerebral nail gun injuries: a definitive review of the literature

AIM

Nail guns are important time saving devices but are associated with morbidity and mortality. Specifically, craniocerebral injuries have been reported in the literature since 1963 and have increased in frequency as the use of these tools has become commonplace. There remains a paucity of literature comprehensively assessing nail gun injuries, as compared with other penetrating craniocerebral injuries like those from firearms.

METHOD

A literature review of PubMed, Medline (Ovid), Cochrane library, and Google Scholar for articles published between 1960 and 2018 reporting craniocerebral nail gun injuries.

RESULTS

In total, 96 individual cases were identified, with 80 meeting inclusion criteria. These were categorized as accidental and intentional injuries. The demographic was overwhelmingly young males (97.5%), and intentional self-inflicted injuries (54%) was the most frequent mechanism of injury. Overall mortality was 10%. Mortality was more common in patients with intentional injuries, but morbidity rates were similar between the accidental and intentional injury cohorts. Post-operative complications rate was 23.8%.

CONCLUSION

Craniocerebral nail gun injuries are associated with lower rates of both mortality and residual neurological deficits than craniocerebral firearms injuries. There is limited data to inform clinical prognostication about long-term neurological impairments and the time to recovery which should be addressed in future studies.

Nonprojectile penetrating iron rod from the oral cavity to the posterior cranial fossa: a case report and review of literature

Introduction

Nonprojectile penetrating skull base injuries as a result of falls have rarely been confronted in normal neurosurgery although a few nonmissile injuries have been reported. These kinds of injuries represent a life-threatening emergency.

Case presentation

We present an unusual case of a 25-year-old male construction worker who suffered an accidental penetrating skull base injury when he fell on a metal rod while he was walking on a 2-meter-high platform. He was clinically stable at presentation. Skull radiograph showed a solid metallic bar, 30 cm long, that penetrated through the right anguli oris eminence and was lodged low in the right occipital bone.

Conclusion

Penetrating injury to the head is considered a form of severe traumatic brain injury. Although case of penetrating head injuries as a result of fall from heights are very rare, we anticipate the construction works on high-rise buildings are at maximum risk. We advise that removal of this kind of foreign bodies be done in the theater and not outside because of risk of involvement of larger vessels leading to fatal hemorrhage. We further suggest that patients with nonprojectile injuries should undergo a preoperative computed tomography-angiography to rule out any vascular injury.

Penetrating Craniomaxillofacial Injury Caused by a Pneumatic Nail Gun

Craniomaxillofacial injuries can be complex, requiring a multidisciplinary approach. The primary survey is always the first step in trauma management prior to proceeding with further evaluation and treatment. A 26-year-old man presented with a penetrating nail gun injury through the oral and nasal cavities. He did not present in extremis but required elective endotracheal intubation for intraoperative assessment and treatment. Airway management was enhanced by the use of lingual nerve and inferior alveolar nerve blocks via the Vazirani-Akinosi technique to maintain spontaneous respiration while the tongue was distracted from the palate. The nail was removed and rapid sequence induction initiated for orotracheal intubation. Local nerve blocks can be an effective tool in the armamentarium of the craniomaxillofacial trauma surgeon in managing blunt and penetrating injuries. We demonstrate its utility in airway management when a penetrating foreign body in the upper airway precludes orotracheal or nasotracheal intubation.

Nail gun injuries to the head with minimal neurological consequences: a case series

Background

An estimated 3700 individuals are seen annually in US emergency departments for nail gun-related injuries. Approximately 45 cases have been reported in the literature concerning nail gun injuries penetrating the cranium. These cases pose a challenge for the neurosurgeon because of the uniqueness of each case, the dynamics of high pressure nail gun injuries, and the surgical planning to remove the foreign body without further vascular injury or uncontrolled intracranial hemorrhage.

Case presentation

Here we present four cases of penetrating nail gun injuries with variable presentations. Case 1 is of a 33-year-old white man who sustained 10 nail gunshot injuries to his head. Case 2 is of a 51-year-old white man who sustained bi-temporal nail gun injuries to his head. Cases 3 and 4 are of two white men aged 22 years and 49 years with a single nail gun injury to the head. In the context of these individual cases and a review of similar cases in the literature we present surgical approaches and considerations in the management of nail gun injuries to the cranium. Case 1 presented with cranial nerve deficits, Case 2 required intubation for low Glasgow Coma Scale, while Cases 3 and 4 were neurologically intact on presentation. Three patients underwent angiography for assessment of vascular injury and all patients underwent surgical removal of foreign objects using a vice-grip. No neurological deficits were found in these patients on follow-up.

Conclusions

Nail gun injuries can present with variable clinical status; mortality and morbidity is low for surgically managed isolated nail gun-related injuries to the head. The current case series describes the surgical use of a vice-grip for a good grip of the nail head and controlled extraction, and these patients appear to have a good postoperative prognosis with minimal neurological deficits postoperatively and on follow-up.

Nail gun injuries treated in U.S emergency departments, 2006-2011: not just a worker safety issue

BACKGROUND

Nail guns increase productivity in residential building but with a corresponding increase in worker injuries. They are also easily accessible, at low cost, to consumers.

METHODS

Data from the occupational supplement to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS-Work) were used to calculate national estimates of work-related injuries from nail guns between 2006 and 2011. These were compared to estimates of consumer injuries obtained through online access to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) NEISS data.

RESULTS

Approximately 25,000 ED-treated work-related and consumer nail gun injuries were estimated each year. During the construction economy collapse, injuries among workers declined markedly, closely following patterns of reduced residential employment. Reduction in consumer injuries was much more modest.

CONCLUSIONS

Current nail gun injury patterns suggest marked blurring of work and home exposures. A united effort of CPSC, NIOSH, and OSHA is warranted to address these preventable injuries.

Nail projectiles propelled by a mason's lacing cord: an experimental approach

The recent clinical observation of two unintentional penetrating ocular and cerebral injuries due to 90-mm construction nails gave occasion to an experimental study to check the alleged trauma mechanism for plausibility. Both casualties reported that they had attached a mason's lacing cord to the masonry using a nail as anchoring when suddenly the nail was yanked from its moorings and propelled like a missile by the overstretched lacing cord. As to the best of the authors' knowledge, this mechanism of injury has not yet been reported in any of the literature; it was the aim to find an experimental approach to review the plausibility of the alleged sequence of events leading to the accidents. The tensile strength at break and strain at break of different mason's lacing cords (diameter of 1 and 2 mm) were measured according to DIN EN ISO 2062 by using a tensile testing machine. Based on the maximum spring energy of the lacing cords, which was determined 174.9 J for the 1-mm cord (length 10 m) and 747.4 J for the 2-mm cord (length 10 m), the maximum possible velocity of the nails as projectiles was calculated to be 243.5 m/s for the 1-mm cord and 503.4 m/s for the 2-mm cord. The critical elongation a cord of a certain length has to be stretched to deliver enough kinetic energy to a 90-mm nail to surpass the threshold velocity for skin penetration, which was investigated by Sellier (1977) to be approximately 18 m/s, was also calculated. To conclude, the energy delivered by the cords is high enough to surpass the rather low threshold velocity of nails. The details of how these accidents occurred, which seemed questionable at first, can be reasonably explained by trauma biomechanics.