“Digital Artery Occlusion Secondary to Plastic Shopping Bag Trauma,” R. Joy, J.L. Isaacs and R.J. McCarthy, Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, vol. 89, no. 6, 2007, pp. W11–3 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1308/147870807X227755). (Thanks to Adrian Smith for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Torbay Hospital, Torquay, U.K., report:
“Upper limb digital arterial occlusion is uncommon. We present the case of a 47-year-old man with an ischaemic right middle finger (dominant hand) due to trauma from carrying a heavy plastic shopping bag. Duplex scanning revealed no proximal source of emboli. An angiogram demonstrated occlusions in the medial and lateral digital arteries of the middle digit at the level of the proximal phalanx. Treatment with heparin and warfarin resulted in complete resolution of symptoms.”
(That’s an excerpt from the article “Improbable Medical Review,” published in AIR 14:5.)
