Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Dec 18, 2018; 9(12): 300-303
Published online Dec 18, 2018. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v9.i12.300
Metallosis following a clip breakage in a total knee arthroplasty implant: A case report
Ahmed Isam Saad, Shafiq Arif Shahban, Richard Fernandes
Ahmed Isam Saad, Shafiq Arif Shahban, Richard Fernandes, Good Hope Hospital Part of the University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham B75 7RR, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Saad AI, Shahban SA and Fernandes R contributed equally to this work, they designed the research and contributed to writing the paper equally.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent has been taken from this patient and form provided with manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The CARE checklist (2016) has been added to the content of this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author to: Ahmed Isam Saad, MBBS, Surgeon, Good Hope Hospital Part of the University Hospital Birmingham, West Midlands, Birmingham B16 8EQ, United Kingdom. ahmed.saad3@nhs.net
Telephone: +44-740-5775343 Fax: +44-121-3712000
Received: October 2, 2018
Peer-review started: October 2, 2018
First decision: November 16, 2018
Revised: November 22, 2018
Accepted: December 13, 2018
Article in press: December 13, 2018
Published online: December 18, 2018
Core Tip

Core tip: Metallosis describes the build-up of metal debris in the soft tissues after a period of metal on metal articulation. This can present acutely, as in this case, or gradually. This case report highlights how a metal clip used to hold the polyethylene liner to the tibial base plate broke 5 years after implantation, dislodged from its original position and went on to cause post-operative knee metallosis. The success to this patient’s management came from thorough debridement, and replacement of the components involved.