Late flexor pollicis longus tendon rupture due to retained glass fragments.

A retained glass fragment caused a flexor pollicis longus tendon rupture 23 years after the patient's initial injury. A review of the literature shows that although previous cases of delayed damage from retained objects have been reported, this is the first report of a tendon injury that was preceded by such a long asymptomatic period. The lesion was treated with a flexor digitorum superficialis tendon transfer from the ring finger with excellent functional results.