Clinical application of neodymium magnetic instruments for the removal of foreign bodies in blind wounds

A feature of modern military conflicts is the high frequency of shrapnel wounds. The search for foreign bodies, even under X-ray navigation, can be technically difficult, lengthy and not always successful. Most injuring objects have ferromagnetic properties.

AIM: The Military Medical Academy, Saint Petersburg purpose of the study: to evaluate the effectiveness of removing ferromagnetic foreign bodies from blind wounds using neodymium magnetic instruments.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Instruments based on a neodymium magnet for removing foreign bodies and a technique for their use have been developed. An analysis was made of 45 operations where traditional instruments were used and 75 operations using original magnetic instruments. Of these, in 40 cases of blind wounds, foreign bodies were removed from the soft tissues of various areas, and in 35 cases, foreign bodies were removed during videothoracoscopy operations for blind penetrating chest wounds. The criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the method were the duration of the operation, the duration of work with the X-ray unit and the number of detected and removed foreign bodies in a fixed period of time.

CONCLUSION: High efficiency, simplicity, accessibility, minimally invasiveness of the developed instruments have been proven. Neodymium magnets made it possible to reduce the time of radiation exposure and the duration of the operation, to increase the efficiency of removing ferromagnetic foreign bodies. The use of original instruments makes it possible to detect 80% of foreign bodies in 10 minutes, and within 30 minutes to remove 90% of foreign bodies from the soft tissues of the wounded. With videothoracoscopy, the time of fluoroscopy was halved, and the total duration of the surgical intervention was reduced by 40%.