Pencils
A German man spent 15 years with a pencil in his head following a childhood accident.

Doctors in Germany have removed a pencil from a man's head 15 years after a childhood accident.

Surgeons at Aachen University Hospital say the 24-year-old patient sought medical help in 2011 after suffering from headaches, constant colds and worsening vision in one eye for a number of years.

A scan revealed the 10-centimeter (4-inch) pencil was lodged between his sinus and pharynx and had injured his right eye socket.

The unnamed man told medics that although he did not remember the pencil entering his head, he once fell badly as a child.

The German doctors successfully removed the pencil and say the man has now recovered.

Hospital spokesman Mathias Brandstaedter said that the case was presented for the first time at a medical conference by Prof Frank Hoelzle of Aachen University.

This is not the first pencil-in-head case doctors have encountered.

In 2007, a German woman complaining of headaches and nosebleeds was found to have had a pencil embeded in her head from an injury she suffered at the age of four.