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Paper Explains How Being Covered in Paint Makes it Harder for Doctors to Examine Your Wounds.

This tragic, yet somehow life-affirming, story comes to us via the inimitable Improbable Research, creators of the Ig Nobel Prizes. You should all subscribe to their newsletter and site feeds post haste.

This report describes the difficulty in evaluating a patient with multiple traumas because he was covered with paint poured from a truck in a car accident...A 29-year-old male patient was admitted to the emergency department following the collision of his car with a paint-carrying truck. His head, face, neck and hands were covered with a cyan-blue oil paint, and bloody “paint mud” covered all frontal and occipital areas of the scalp.

A rapid cleansing with normal saline solution… was attempted in order to expose the lesions of the patient, but it had no effect on the drying paint. The patient was then diagnosed as having a maxillofacial fracture and underwent surgery for open reduction and rigid fixation by plastic and reconstructive surgeons. Normal saline removed corneal and conjunctival paint remnants but proved ineffective for cleansing of the eyelids and eyelashes.

CONCLUSION: Removal of the paint from the skin and the eyes was a prerequisite for the evaluation of the underlying structures. It is difficult to find a cleansing material that can be used effectively and safely in different parts of the body.

You can read the full paper here.

Posted by Meera Lee Sethi on November 30, 2009 at 10:22 AM in health, like, duh!