It was recently discovered that a Vietnamese guy, who for the past five months had been experiencing severe migraines and even loss of vision, had a pair of chopsticks lodged in his skull.
The unidentified man complained of persistent headaches, blurred vision, and fluid coming out of his nose. He was recently admitted to the Cuba Friendship Hospital in Dong Hoi, in the Quang Binh province of Vietnam.
The individual denied having any known reason for these symptoms when questioned, but a CT scan revealed two foreign objects sticking out of his nose and into his brain, along with a tension pneumocephalus, which is the intracranial equivalent of a pneumothorax. After a close inspection, the objects were determined to be broken chopsticks.
The 35-year-old patient was first as confused as his physicians when asked how the chopsticks might have gotten inside his skull, but he eventually recalled an incident that happened five months earlier that might help explain his condition.
The man ended himself in the emergency department after getting into a physical argument one night while out drinking. But the medical staff there simply bandaged him and let him leave. He can’t recall what happened, but he thinks the other man put the chopsticks through his nose and into his skull.
The medical team chose, after weighing all the options, to use microsurgery in conjunction with endoscopic surgery through the nose to repair the patient’s cranial fistula and remove the pair of chopsticks.
The head of Cuba Friendship Hospital’s neurosurgery department, doctor Nguyen Van Man, asserts that selecting the best surgical technique is essential to preventing the patient from experiencing aftereffects.
