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 as hooks and harpoons, and even by scales, or infection from penetration of scales etc are relatively common although hardly ever reported in the literature. METHODS: Illustrative cases of penetrating fishing injuries are presented and 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 or without spurs. Because of their very irregular shape, simple extraction by 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 treatment are very important.