An unusual case of intra orbital foreign body; diagnosis, management, and outcome: a case report

BACKGROUND: An orbitocranial injury with a penetrating Intraorbital Foreign Body (IOFB) is listed as a rare cause of penetrating trauma. Since this type of trauma is considered a surgical emergency, taking a thorough history along with careful examination to find out the mechanism and cause of the trauma is crucial towards correct diagnosis and management of the disease. CASE PRESENTATION: A 35-year-old male patient was presented to the ER with an occupational craniofacial injury because of an IOFB. The patient underwent an extra-dural orbitocranial craniotomy procedure to remove the foreign body. Interestingly, a plastic foreign body (a piece of a plastic pipe) was removed from the orbital cavity, which was suspected to be a fractured orbital bone, at first place. CONCLUSION: In this study, we demonstrated that plastics could mimic bone structure in a Computerized Tomography (CT) scan leading to possible initial misdiagnosis. Hence high clinical suspicion is necessary for the correct diagnosis of such cases. However, despite the prompt intervention, our patient ended up with permanent vision loss in his injured eye.