Title

A curious case of unsuspected intracranial metallic splinter with complications

Authors

Sucheta Tirpude & Dhirav Thakkar*

Affiliation

Department of Neurosurgery, H.B.T. Medical College and Dr. R.N. Cooper Hospital, Mumbai, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Sucheta Tirpude - E-mail: suuchii86@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9999498120
Dhirav Thakkar - E-mail: dhiravthakkar12@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9029276930

Article Type

Views

Date

Received October 1, 2025; Revised November 15, 2025; Accepted November 15, 2025, Published November 15, 2025

Abstract

Penetrating injuries to the brain, due to low-velocity, non-missile objects are rare in civilian lament, but can carry significant morbidity. We describe a 20-year-old male with altered sensorium, headache and imbalance, months following what was deemed a trivial head injury from cricket. After imaging, a 2.5 cm metallic splinter lodged in the left cerebellum, which was subsequently surgically removed. The patient developed meningitis and hydrocephalus, required a shunt thereafter, but was complicated by the development of a pseudocyst, cherry-picking a CSF leak, malfunction of the original shunt and he ultimately had to be managed with a ventriculoarterial shunt. Thus, the need for routine imaging, expedited clinical recognition and individual management of delayed complications for penetrating injuries with the brain.

Keywords

Metallic foreign body, intracranial foreign body, ventriculoperitoneal shunt, ventriculoarterial shunt, pseudocyst formation.

Citation

Tirpude & Thakkar, Bioinformation 21(11): 4031-4034 (2025)

Edited by

A Prashanth

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.