For years, no one knew where it had ended up. It was the brake lever from his bicycle, lost in a fall when he was 10 years old. Three years later, it was discovered by a spinal X-ray performed for leg pain. The 5.5-centimeter piece of metal had lodged in the boy's back: penetrating from his side through a small wound, it had eventually lodged itself in his lumbar region, where it contacted a nerve root . Its removal required highly complex surgery performed by the orthopedic team at the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital in Palidoro.
After the bike fall, the boy continued to play sports and lead a normal life, without any problems. However, at 13, he began to experience pain in his right leg and, later, a less defined discomfort in both lower limbs. Neurological tests revealed no changes, but a spinal X-ray revealed the presence of an elongated, curved metal object in the lumbar region. The boy was operated on by Leonardo Oggiano, of the Orthopedics and Traumatology team at Bambino Gesù Hospital in Palidoro, led by Pier Francesco Costici, head of the Operating Unit.
The surgery, which lasted approximately three hours, was performed through a small incision in the posterior region of the back. "The main difficulty," explains Oggiano, "was the position of the lever, which had moved into the foraminal space, precisely where the nerve root emerges from the spine. We had to gradually free the nerve from the foreign body, working with extreme precision to preserve its functionality." The boy, Costici emphasizes, "had remained without significant symptoms for three years, continuing to carry out his normal activities, despite the presence of a foreign body of this size in a very delicate anatomical location."
(Unioneonline)
