A 60-year-old woman presented to us with pain over medial aspect of right knee joint. The pain was non radiating. The pain was relieved by rest and was exacerbated by squatting and sitting cross legged. The patient had difficulty in climbing stairs. On physical examination there was tenderness along the medial aspect of knee joint and a curved scar mark was present over the anterior aspect of knee joint (). While history taking the patient told us that she had a patella fracture around 4 years back which was treated by open reduction and internal fixation and she subsequently underwent implant removal 2 years back. The patient had full range of motion (ROM) at knee joint (Figs. , ) and moderate pain was observed on medial side while flexing and extending knee joint. There was no history of any recent trauma to knee joint. A provisional diagnosis of osteoarthritis knee joint was made and weight bearing standing antero-posterior and lateral x-rays ofleft knee joint were ordered. On X-rays it was found that multiple pieces of broken circlage wire were present around knee joint and one piece had migrated posteriorly (). On examination patient did not had distal neurovascular deficit and patients pain was not related to these broken pieces, rather it was due to degenerative changes in the knee joint. It is believed that the surgeon who did implant removal removed only the K wires leaving behind the circlage wires which broke into multiple pieces over the passage of time due to the repeated stresses at knee joint. Patient was advised to undergo total knee replacement along with subsequent removal of broken hardware as potential undue complications can occur because ofbroken hardware in the form of damage to neuro vascular structure due to migration of pieces posteriorly. It was also explained to the patient that cases have been reported where broken pieces migrate to heart and sternum and produce life threatening complications. However, patient refused to undergo any type of surgery. she was warned and told to be alert whenever the nature of her pain changes or she experiences new onset of symptoms which is different in character from the pain she is experiencing now and was kept on regular follow up.
A 27-year-old female patients with Grade II avascular necrosis of the head of femur secondary to sickle cell disease were taken to operating room for drilling and injection of autologous bone marrow derived osteoblasts and are recommended to use a smaller diameter K-wire for instillation of the cells. During the procedure, two guidewires were passed to centralize the area of injection. A 3.2 mm cannulated drill was used to drill on top of the guidewires. During drilling, 2 cm of the proximal guide wire broke () and we believe that this happened due to metal fatigue as the wire was used before couple of time. A discussion arose whether to leave the broken wire in situ. The risk of migration was always on the cards, hence, the guidewire was pushed back to the edge of the broken part. A 4.0 mm cannulated drill was used to drill over the broken wire (). The drill was pushed till the subchondral bone and slowly the cannulated drill was withdrawn and with it the broken part came out (). The rest of the procedure was carried out as per our protocol. shows the X-ray the right hip after 16 months of the surgery.