Abstract
Despite advances in imaging techniques, the detection of vegetative foreign bodies in soft tissues remains a difficult and sometimes even a challenging task. Clinical evaluation of such patient may present several months or even years after the initial injury and clinician may fail to elicit an antecedent skin puncture. X-ray examination will miss radiolucent foreign bodies. A 15-year-old boy presented with a draining non-healing sinus at the lateral aspect of his right thigh for 9 months. Musculoskeletal ultrasonography was ordered after ruling out chronic osteomyelitis to detect possible lesions around the thigh. High-frequency linear ultrasonic probe readily detected an elongated foreign body within the vastus lateralis muscle. A long piece of wood was confirmed at surgery. Non-healing sinus with normal finding in radiograph following old trauma should raise the suspicion of implanted radiolucent foreign body/bodies. The role of diagnostic ultrasound as a valuable screening tool for the detection of foreign body is briefly reviewed.