01 New York, Oct 28, 2000. Body piercing has 02 become popular in recent years. But emergency room 03 doctors in Britain often do not know how to remove 04 the jewelry commonly used in body piercing, and this 05 can interfere with treatment or x-ray procedures, 06 according to a report in the Journal of Accident and 07 Emergency Medicine. 08 Dr. Rakesh Khanna and colleagues of the 09 Staffordshire District Hospital, UK, surveyed 28 UK 10 accident and emergency doctors to see if they could 111 describe how to open three of the most common rings 12 used in body piercing. The researchers found that 13 "only six were able accurately to describe the opening 14 mechanism of all three types of jewelry." Some 15 indications for removing body rings are complications 16 of piercing, including swelling, infection and bleeding, 17 but jewelry may also have to be removed if the patient 18 needs to undergo x-ray or if trauma has occurred to 19 the pierced area. 20 As an example, the authors cite a case where 21 a tongue piercing had to be removed from an 22 unconscious patient in order to take x-rays of a 23 suspected neck injury. Tongue piercing shows up on 24 x-rays, and can hide dangerous fractures in neck 25 vertebrae. 26 The bead ring, which is mostly used for 27 piercings of the nose, navel and eyebrows, can be 28 removed "by holding the ring on either side of the bead
29 and releasing the tension on the bead," they explain.
SOURCE: Journal of Accident and Emergency
Medicine, 1999;16:418-421.
The following are parts of the body except