An effective alternative management for multiple sea urchin spine injury: Erbium-YAG laser ablation

摘要

Complete surgical removal of sea urchin spines can be extremely difficult due to the multiplicity and fragility of the spines. We describe a 49-year-old lady with multiple sea urchin spine injury over her left sole which was successfully treated with Erbium-YAG laser therapy. Laser ablation is very effective in destroying multiple sea urchin spines without causing thermal necrosis of the adjacent tissues, and may be considered as an important non-operative treatment modality. 2005 European Foot and Ankle Society. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.