Department of Otolaryngology, The Freeman Hospital, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE7 7DN, UK. pkarkos@aol.com
The fashion of body piercing among adults has encouraged children to have similar procedures or imitate them by applying small magnets to sustain the jewelery used in piercing in position [Emerg. Med. J. 19 (2002) 71]. We present cases of children who have placed magnets on their nasal alae that became misplaced on to the nasal septum causing severe pain and in some cases nasal bleeding and septal perforation. We describe management of these cases.