will our body remove foreign object by itself if not treated?

[kenny1999]

If there is a wound which is contamined with a small amount of foreign objects e.g. cotton, tissue paper or metal shrad, etc, will our body remove it on its own if not treated. What is the steps or mechanism of such process?

[Phi for All]

On 7/3/2023 at 11:25 PM, kenny1999 said:

What is the steps or mechanism of such process?

Hemostasis is the first step, forming a clot to stop the bleeding and form a scab. Inflammation flushes debris and micro-contaminants from the wound and introduces nutrients to help form new tissue. Rebuilding the tissue forces the scab off eventually, which should remove any macro-contaminants (like cotton or other bits). Your skin grows from the bottom layers to the top, so anything trapped on a layer will eventually be forced to the surface and shed with other skin.

[StringJunky]

Macrophages also surround and absorb objects in a process called 'phagocytosis'. 

Quote

Macrophages (abbreviated as Mφ, MΦ or MP) (Greek: large eaters, from Greek μακρός (makrós) = large, φαγεῖν (phagein) = to eat) are a type of white blood cell of the innate immune system that engulf and digest pathogens, such as cancer cells, microbes, cellular debris, and foreign substances, which do not have proteins that are specific to healthy body cells on their surface. This process is called phagocytosis, which acts to defend the host against infection and injury.

Macrophages are found in essentially all tissues, where they patrol for potential pathogens by amoeboid movement.

Wikipedia

 

[Genady]

Eight years ago, I had a sharp pencil puncturing my finger and getting a couple of millimeters into the skin. No bleeding, the hole completely healed, but a grey graphite mark is still visible under the skin.

Edited July 7, 2023 by Genady

[MigL]

I was involved in a car crash, about 22 years ago, that fractured my hip, dislocated my left foot, shredded my left hand, needed surgery on my right knee to reconstruct what was left of my knee-cap with pins and wires, and required 35 stitches across my neck to my chin.

A year and a half later, I would pick at little bumps  and scabs on my chin, and small pieces of windshield glass would come out.

[Phi for All]

4 hours ago, Genady said:

Eight years ago, I had a sharp pencil puncturing my finger and getting a couple of millimeters into the skin. No bleeding, the hole completely healed, but a grey graphite mark is still visible under the skin.

You got down into the dermis, like a tattoo needle. Ouch!

4 hours ago, MigL said:

I was involved in a car crash, about 22 years ago, that fractured my hip, dislocated my left foot, shredded my left hand, needed surgery on my right knee to reconstruct what was left of my knee-cap with pins and wires, and required 35 stitches across my neck to my chin.

A year and a half later, I would pick at little bumps  and scabs on my chin, and small pieces of windshield glass would come out.

That sounds like a long-haul, painful recovery. Triple ouch! Glad you're still with us.

[exchemist]

14 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

You got down into the dermis, like a tattoo needle. Ouch!

That sounds like a long-haul, painful recovery. Triple ouch! Glad you're still with us.

Your explanation, of the way skin grows from the bottom, accounts for objects embedded  in the skin being expelled. But what about objects that are further inside the body? Can they also work their way out and if so how does occur?

[iNow]

3 hours ago, exchemist said:

what about objects that are further inside the body? Can they also work their way out and if so how does occur?

At that point, the concept of metabolism takes over and the answer very much depends on the composition (and size) of the object. 

[Peterkin]

On 7/4/2023 at 1:25 AM, kenny1999 said:

If there is a wound which is contamined with a small amount of foreign objects e.g. cotton, tissue paper or metal shrad, etc, will our body remove it on its own if not treated. What is the steps or mechanism of such process?

Most times, if it's fragments or a very small object, yes, it will. Several ways: directly through blood, if the wound remains open long enough; over a few days, via pus, if the wound is locally infected (e.g. slivers or glass fragments in fingers), then drained; over a period of weeks or months, through granuloma formation and sometimes migration (a cat I had once ate a little piece of christmas ornament, and we knew nothing about it until spring when a little plug of skin came loose from her neck with the bit of galls tucked up in it. Clean wound underneath healed without incident.)  Larger objects, as a bullet or shrapnel  may be dormant for years, then  dislodge from one part of the body and move through interstitial fluids, but they're much less likely to find an exit.  Pencil lead or ink in the dermis usually stays put. (I had a friend with a pencil dot in his forehead since primary school. It did him no harm.)

[Genady]

I knew a young woman who in her teen years tried to get facial rings a few times, in an eyebrow, in a lip, ... Her body pushed them out every time. The rings just fell off, leaving small scars on the skin behind.

[mistermack]

36 minutes ago, Genady said:

I knew a young woman who in her teen years tried to get facial rings a few times,

I know an old lady who swallowed a fly. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQHmZMf6zwo

 

[Genady]

26 minutes ago, mistermack said:

I know an old lady who swallowed a fly. 

Did her body remove it as per OP?

(I didn't watch the video, so don't know if it contains the answer)

[TheVat]

1 hour ago, Genady said:

Did her body remove it as per OP?

(I didn't watch the video, so don't know if it contains the answer)

A humorous folk song by Burl Ives, which has the woman swallowing successively larger creatures, until she swallowed a horse....she died, of course.  No one knows why she swallowed the fly.  

😀

[Genady]

19 minutes ago, TheVat said:

A humorous folk song by Burl Ives, which has the woman swallowing successively larger creatures, until she swallowed a horse....she died, of course.  No one knows why she swallowed the fly.  

😀

Thank you for explaining. I understand his post now. Perhaps, I wouldn't understand the lyrics anyway, because of the APD.

[TheVat]

I think many youtube songs, you can type in the song name followed by the word lyrics, and you will get a video that shows the lyrics. (with better quality than some of the CC)

 

This all raises a question, perhaps for another thread, which is about the viability of a fly that a person has swallowed whole.  Would the low pH environment of the stomach quickly kill the fly, if the muscular action of swallowing didn't?  If the stomach were empty, could there be sufficient air and space for the fly to buzz around in there for a while?  Or would the coating of saliva and mucus have already incapacitated it?  

[Genady]

That raises another question, perhaps for another thread: did the old lady have a medical condition known as Pica?

Pica (disorder) - Wikipedia

[zapatos]

Inhaled dust is excreted via mucous. 

[Genady]

2 hours ago, TheVat said:

I think many youtube songs, you can type in the song name followed by the word lyrics, and you will get a video that shows the lyrics. (with better quality than some of the CC)

 

This all raises a question, perhaps for another thread, which is about the viability of a fly that a person has swallowed whole.  Would the low pH environment of the stomach quickly kill the fly, if the muscular action of swallowing didn't?  If the stomach were empty, could there be sufficient air and space for the fly to buzz around in there for a while?  Or would the coating of saliva and mucus have already incapacitated it?  

I still don't understand the second half of the song. Why would the goat catch the dog, the cow catch the goat, and the horse catch the cow? What kind of animal behavior is this? Do they ALL have issues?

[TheVat]

LoL!  It's quite a different ecosystem in the human GI tract.

[kenny1999]

I have seen a lot of movies that when someone gets shot, he will then be sent to hospital to have the bullet removed, what if the bullet isn't removed but it is not hurting any critical organs? What would he end up in theory?

Edited July 9, 2023 by kenny1999

[CharonY]

1 hour ago, kenny1999 said:

I have seen a lot of movies that when someone gets shot, he will then be sent to hospital to have the bullet removed, what if the bullet isn't removed but it is not hurting any critical organs? What would he end up in theory?

Reality is rather different from movies. There are cases when bullets are likely to cause issues (e.g. in joints, at nerves or blood vessels) where there are routinely removed. But beyond that, they are often left alone. Fundamentally there is no mechanism of the body to get rid of larger stuff that is deeply embedded in wounds. It can get isolated and then sticks around (literally). But there is not really a mechanisms to move larger things through the body cavity in mammals that I am aware of.

In frogs and fish folks have identified mechanisms in which foreign objects were removed. In case of the frog it was eliminated through the bladder and I believe in some fish it was observed that the objects moved into the intestines. 

 

[mistermack]

I know a man who swallowed a spider . . . .

Man who swallowed a spider while sleeping thought he was going to die (msn.com)