Intracardiac Self Insertion of a Darning Needle in a Psychiatric Patient

Objective: We report a case of self inserted needle into the left ventricle of the heart and a description of our surgical intervention in a psychiatric patient without decision-making capacity. We discuss issues regarding obtaining consent in this patient with a sub-acute presentation, report our operative approach, and summarize a treatment approach based on a review of current literature. Methods: A PubMed search using terms “needle, “heart”, “insertion”, “intracardiac foreign object”, yielded 69 relevant papers. 67 of these were case reports yielding 72 individual cases. Age, gender, cause of the needle entry (Accidental Plus (A+), Intravenous Drug User [IVDU], Self-inflicted (SI)), type of needle, location in heart, neuropsychiatric history, treatment, and outcome were documented. Results: Within the SI category, there were a total of 28 cases, 89.3% had a neuropsychiatric history whereas only there were only 2 such patients in both the IVDU and A+ group. The location of the needle in the heart in all 72 cases was as follows: right ventricle 40.3%, other 20.8%, left ventricle 19.4 %, ventricle and interventricular septum 16.7% and the right and left atrium were each 1.4 %. In all three groups (n=72), 77.8% of patients underwent surgery, with 92.9% having a stable outcome. Conclusion: Our case and review demonstrates that management of such cases, particularly when active mental health issues are present, requires a case-by-case evaluation and treatment as a specific standard of care has not been established. Surgical intervention appears to be the preferred management regardless of presentation with good outcomes. Running Title: Intracardiac Self Insertion of a Darning Needle in a Psychiatric Patient