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Radiologists Diagnose and Treat Self-Fixing Disorder in Teens, Dec 03, RSNA 2008
Monday, 08 December 2008 00:14 | 
| Medical Conferences News - RSNA 2008 |
Radiologists have begun using a minimally invasive, image-guided technique to detect and remove objects inserted by teens into their arms, hands, feet, ankles and necks.
Simply enveloping, image-guided treatment is a safe and exact method for removal of self-inflicted foreign objects from the body, according to the first report on “self-embedding disorder” in youth. The findings will be presented today at the annual meeting of the RSNA
Self-injury refers to a variety of behaviors in which a person intentionally inflicts harm to their body without suicidal plan. It is a disturbing trend among U.S. teenagers, mainly girls. Self-injury has been reported in 13 to 24 percent of high school students in the U.S. and Canada has practiced deliberate self-injury at least once. In cases of self-embedding disorder, objects are used to puncture the skin or are embedded into the wound after cutting.
More common forms of self-injury include cutting of the skin, burning, bruising, hair pulling, breaking bones or swallowing toxic substances. Dr. Shiels and colleagues studied 19 episodes of self-embedding injury in 10 adolescent girls had age 15 to 18. Interventional pediatric radiologists removed 52 fixed foreign objects from nine of the patients, using ultrasound and fluoroscopic guidance. Self-embedded objects removed included metal needles, metal staples, metal paperclips, wood, stone, glass, plastic, graphite (pencil lead) and a crayon. One patient had self-fixed 11 objects, with an unfolded metal paperclip more than six inches in length.
Removal was performed through small incisions in the skin that left little or no scarring and was successful in all cases, without fragmentation or complications. Ultrasound guidance allowed the researchers to detect the presence and location of wood, crayons and plastic objects, not detectable on x-ray examinations.
Source: RSNA
Self-injury refers to a variety of behaviors in which a person intentionally inflicts harm to their body without suicidal plan. It is a disturbing trend among U.S. teenagers, mainly girls. Self-injury has been reported in 13 to 24 percent of high school students in the U.S. and Canada has practiced deliberate self-injury at least once. In cases of self-embedding disorder, objects are used to puncture the skin or are embedded into the wound after cutting.
More common forms of self-injury include cutting of the skin, burning, bruising, hair pulling, breaking bones or swallowing toxic substances. Dr. Shiels and colleagues studied 19 episodes of self-embedding injury in 10 adolescent girls had age 15 to 18. Interventional pediatric radiologists removed 52 fixed foreign objects from nine of the patients, using ultrasound and fluoroscopic guidance. Self-embedded objects removed included metal needles, metal staples, metal paperclips, wood, stone, glass, plastic, graphite (pencil lead) and a crayon. One patient had self-fixed 11 objects, with an unfolded metal paperclip more than six inches in length.
Removal was performed through small incisions in the skin that left little or no scarring and was successful in all cases, without fragmentation or complications. Ultrasound guidance allowed the researchers to detect the presence and location of wood, crayons and plastic objects, not detectable on x-ray examinations.
Source: RSNA
