Case b. A 13-year-old girl presents to urgent care with a laceration that occurred when she fell through a glass door. You note a 2-cm linear laceration, and radiography shows what appears to be a residual piece of glass at or near the site of the laceration.
You anesthetize the area and begin dissection in an attempt to locate the glass fragment, which goes on for 20 minutes without success. The child and her mother are becoming anxious. You call for the portable ultrasound system, and using its high-frequency transducer, quickly locate the foreign body. After additional anesthesia is applied, the splinter is easily removed under ultrasound guidance and the patient is discharged.
For more information, see “Capturing Elusive Foreign Bodies With Ultrasound.” Emergency Medicine. 2009 June;41(6):36-42.