Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 21, 2022; 10(3): 1116-1121
Published online Jan 21, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i3.1116
New method to remove tibial intramedullary nail through original suprapatellar incision: A case report
Miao He, Jie Li
Miao He, Jie Li, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Chongqing Emergency Medical Center (Chongqing University Central Hospital), Chongqing 400010, China
Author contributions: He M designed the case report; He M and Li J collected the data; He M analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Miao He, MD, Doctor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Chongqing Emergency Medical Center (Chongqing University Central Hospital), No. 1 Jiankang Road, Chongqing 400010, China. smalldaixin@163.com
Received: July 10, 2021
Peer-review started: July 10, 2021
First decision: September 28, 2021
Revised: October 11, 2021
Accepted: December 25, 2021
Article in press: December 25, 2021
Published online: January 21, 2022
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Since 2006, introducing a tibial intramedullary nail via the suprapatellar approach has been established; however, nail removal must be carried out using classic infrapatellar access, which can lead to complications. Here, we report a new method to remove the intramedullary nail through the original suprapatellar incision.

CASE SUMMARY

A 39-year-old man was hit by a vehicle in 2019. He was immobilized with a 10-mm × 330-mm tibial intramedullary nail via the suprapatellar approach due to left middle tibial fracture. Two years later, the patient requested for the implant to be removed. We used a new method to remove the tibial intramedullary nail through the original suprapatellar incision, and the operation went smoothly.

CONCLUSION

This case report indicates that suprapatellar access can be used to remove the intramedullary nail via the original incision without infrapatellar access, thus avoiding surgical complications.

Keywords: Suprapatellar approach, Nail removal, Infrapatellar access, Case report

Core Tip: A 39-year-old man was immobilized with a 10-mm × 330-mm tibial intramedullary nail via the suprapatellar approach due to left middle tibial fracture. The end cap of the nail was purposely not inserted. Two years later, we used a novel method to remove the tibial intramedullary nail through the original suprapatellar incision.