Images in Clinical Medicine

Sand as a Foreign Body

Nicola Petitti, M.D., Ph.D.

N Engl J Med 1997; 337:96July 10, 1997

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Figure 1 A 30-year-old woman was trapped in a car that had flipped over and landed in a shallow lake with a sandy bottom. She was rescued and rushed to the emergency department, where computed tomographic (CT) scans were obtained. Several hyperdense collections (denser than bone) are apparent on the radiographic studies. The CT scan of the head shows sand in the right maxillary sinus (Panel A, arrow). The scan of the chest shows sand in the bronchial tree (Panel B, arrow), and the abdominal CT scan shows sand in the stomach (Panel C, arrow). After the placement of a nasogastric tube, bronchial lavage, and a few days in the hospital, the patient recovered fully and was discharged.

Nicola Petitti, M.D., Ph.D.
Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157

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