A Rare Case of High-Pressure Paint Injection Causing a Penetrating Neck Injury

We report a case of a 45-year-old gentleman who presented to our major trauma centre after sustaining a penetrating high-pressure paint injection injury to the neck. This rare mechanism of injury is most commonly reported to affect the non-dominant hand, occurring due to the malfunction or misuse of industrial paint machines, causing a piercing soft tissue injury with high-pressure fluid. The unique challenges faced in managing penetrating injuries to the neck are due to the density of vital visceral structures in the region, including major blood vessels and the upper aerodigestive tract. Whilst there is one documented case of a water injection injury, there are no published reports involving paint injection injuries to the neck at the time of writing this report. As such, we present this unique case to highlight important learning points and the challenges faced in our experience of managing a penetrating paint injury of the neck at our major trauma centre.