Arthroscopical removal of a projectile from the intra-articular cavity of the knee joint

Abstract.

We report the case of a 29-year-old patient with an uncommon handgun accident. A gun was resting in his pocket when an accidental shot was fired. The projectile penetrated the skin of the thigh, travelled through the quadriceps muscle and entered the articular cavity at the upper pole of the suprapatellar recess. It passed the femoropatellar joint space and stopped within the infra-articular fad pad. The bullet was localized by conventional X-rays and removed by arthroscopy. The patient developed no infection, and in a clinical follow-up examination 6 months postoperatively, we observed no pathological findings.