Sir.—In the May 1992 issue of AJDC,1 Avner and Baker reported some interesting evidence supporting the use of routine roentgenography in all patients with lacerations involving glass.1 In addition to the depth of the wound, I suspect that the length or size of the laceration is also related to the practitioner's ability to detect glass fragments, and wonder if this information is available.
As stated by the authors, the degree of confidence that the examiner had that the bottom of the wound was visualized was not measured. It is possible that in a longer or wider wound, it is easier to visualize the bottom, and therefore easier to identify foreign material. In addition, information on whether shorter wounds had any glass in them at all would be helpful.
As the authors stated in their conclusions, further investigation concerning the mechanism of injury, the depth of the wound,