A late-onset seizure due to a retained intracranial foreign body--pencil lead: a case report and review.

A 40-year-old man presented with recent recurrent seizures. He was operated on to resect the right temporal mass with a foreign body, a pencil lead. The foreign body had entered the brain parenchyma for an accident in a child without apparent head injury, sustained for 30 years. He was asymptomatic for the intervening 30 years. It is rare that a pencil lead totally penetrated with an inapparent transtemporal closed head injury. The case may caution neurosurgeons to make the complete diagnosis of retained intracranial foreign bodies and thinking of need for early surgical exploration, to avoid chronic and potentially life-threatening neurological complications.