Fishing penetration injuries

Background-Fishing involves millions of people throughout the world and is considered a pleasant and harmless sport. However, many kinds of injury can occur. Penetrating injuries to the extremities by fishing equipment such a s hooks and harpoons, and even by scales, or infection from penetration of scales etc are relatively common although hardly ever reported in the liter ature. Methods-Illustrative cases of penetrating fishing injuries are presented an d discussed, with suggestions for the recommended management of these types of injury. Results-Most of these objects are designed to catch and hold resisting fish , so are usually sharp and narrow in the front and wider in the rear with o r without spurs. Because of their very irregular shape, simple extraction b y pulling is not recommended, because further damage may occur. Conclusions-The use of the appropriate imaging modalities, a full knowledge of the contours of the object, and careful preplanning of the method of tr eatment are very important.