Separation of the tip of a coblation wand within the knee joint: a complication of arthroscopic adhesiolysis.
Coblation devices are now widely used in arthroscopic surgery and they show a very low incidence of intraoperative complications. We experienced a case where the tip of the wand separated and migrated into the posterior knee compartment in an arthrofibrotic knee. The free wand tip was identified and then extricated from the popliteal hiatus of the knee with using C-arm fluoroscopic control. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of its kind involving coblation wands. We describe this complication to show that the use of coblation devices can lead to unexpected problems and it is imperative to inspect all instruments before and after each surgical use.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Seonam Medical School, Gwangju, Korea.
Yeub
Y
Kim
Ha-Kyung
HK
Kim
Jung-Ro
JR
Yoon
Nasir
N
Muzaffar
Taik-Sun
TS
Kim
Young-Su
YS
Shin
D001182:Arthroscopy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004868:Equipment Failure; D006801:Humans; D007431:Intraoperative Complications; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged