Thoracic wall foreign bodies following penetrating trauma in pediatric age group: report of two cases with literature review

Penetrating chest injury may pose difficulty in diagnosis of these cases for the health provider. Foreign bodies (FB) in thoracic wall after a penetrative injury are scarcely seen in childhood. There is a wide spectrum of foreign objects retained in thorax following a trauma and these include bullets, shrapnel, a piece of wearing, bones, rib particles and glass. Rapid and accurate diagnostic work-up followed by an appropriate surgical management is important. Herein 2 different cases with foreign bodies embedded in thoracic wall following a penetrating thoracic trauma are presented. The other objective of this study is to review the handling of retained thoracic FBs in children and a brief literature review is given.