Orthopedic Coding Alert

Pre and post op-diagnosis: Foreign body, left knee.

Case history: The patient had a large silicone implant inserted into the plantar aspect of the foot many years ago. She states that she literally watched it migrate over the course of years towards the knee. For at least eight months she has had recurrent infections whereby the skin will become infected, pus will come out, and foreign bodies would be extruded.

Description of Procedure: The patient was taken to the operating room and general anesthesia was administered. The leg was placed in the extended position, A 0.5-cm incision was made that was curvilinear avoiding the precarious skin over the patella and centered more over the musculature of the anterolateral proximal leg i.e. tibialis anterior. With a combination of an osteotome and curette, sharp dissection and blunt dissection and osteotome, tremendous amount of gritty material was removed. It spread out over the course of almost 9 cm in length and about 4 cm across. The wound was irrigated. The specimen was sent to pathology. The subcutaneous tissues were closed with a running 3-0 and the skin was closed with a running Prolene. Marcaine was injected and compression dressing was applied. The patient was woken up and taken to the recovery room in stable condition.

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