Hepatic foreign body - a sewing needle - in a child

We report a case of a 1-year-old boy with a needle-like foreign body embedded in the liver. The foreign body was incidentally found in the right hypochondrium on routine chest X-ray during a periodic medical examination. He was asymptomatic and there was neither a history of swallowing a needle nor a puncture wound on his body. The results of blood tests and physical examination were entirely within normal limits. Computed tomography scan showed that the needle was completely buried in the liver. At laparotomy, some fibrous tissue and a scar were recognized between the surface of the left lobe of the liver and the parietal peritoneum of the upper abdominal wall. The end of the sewing needle was manually squeezed out and extracted from the liver. From this operative finding, it was assumed that the needle had penetrated the liver through his skin. His postoperative course was uneventful and he was discharged on postoperative day 8.