Complications of lost needle after suture of vaginal tear following delivery

We present a case of a lost broken needle during repair of a vaginal tear following delivery. The woman was not informed at that time. Only twenty years later a pelvic X-ray visualised the fragment by chance. From that day on she complained about lower abdominal chronic pain and insisted on a hysterectomy. The case considers moving of foreign bodies and as a cause of chronic pain and relates to open information even 20 years later. Received: 25 March 2000 / Accepted: 8 April 2000