AIIMS Delhi surgeons extract sewing needle from 7-year-old's lung using a magnet

New Delhi: Paediatric surgeons at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi have extracted a long sewing machine needle from the lung of a 7-year-old kid using a tiny high-powered magnet, demonstrating their skills to innovate.

Applying the out-of-the box solution, they took out the four cm long needle within 15 minutes even though only a few mm of the needle was visible in the endoscopy. Most of it was embedded deep inside the lung.

The 7 year old boy was admitted to AIIMS earlier this week in a life-threatening condition after encountering hemoptysis (cough with bleeding). Subsequent radiological investigations revealed a long sewing machine needle lodged deeply in the left lung.

The needle resided so profoundly within the lung that traditional methods would prove almost ineffective, prompting the surgical team to look for innovative solutions.

Credit: AIIMS

Following close consultation among the peers, the doctors decided to try with a magnet first even though there was hardly any precedence in the literature. “We found evidence of magnets being used as a support system, but not as a primary tool to extract foreign bodies,” Vishesh Jain, one of the paediatric surgeons who conducted the surgery told DH.

The first challenge was to find out a magnet, which would be strong enough to pull out the needle but small enough to pass through the narrow windpipes. They procured one such magnet from Chandni Chowk market.

The surgical team led by Jain and Devendra Kumar Yadav bought a 4 mm magnet, devised a single jawed device and strapped the tiny magnet for the endoscopic surgery as traditional methods of taking out the needle could not be used.

The primary objective was to ensure the secure delivery of the magnet to the needle's location without any risk of dislodging it into the trachea.

On Friday when the magnet-tipped instrument was carefully inserted through the mouth cavity for the surgery, almost magically the needle responded to the magnetic force, smoothly emerging from its concealed location, eliciting a sense of relief for the doctors.

“The entire operation was over in 15 minutes though we were ready with alternatives, if the magnet didn’t work,” Jain said.