Removal of a Pencil Embedded in a Child’s Foot: A Case Report

Abstract

The foot is the most common anatomic site for foreign body embedment in both children and adults. An 11-year-old boy boy with a history of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), learning disorder, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was brought to our ED with a pencil deeply embedded in his right foot. The broken portion of the pencil was completely embedded in his right foot, with mild bleeding and it could not be extracted easily. The pencil was eventually mobilized via gentle back-and-forth twisting motion, which allowed successful removal of a significant portion of the embedded pencil. To establish the presence of a foreign body, as in each X-ray, the affected body part should be imaged in at least two directions. Based on the density of the embedded foreign body, ultrasound imaging should be considered.