A broken sewing needle in the knee of a 4-year-old child: is it really inside the knee?

Abstract

We report on a case of a broken needle that migrated inside the knee joint of a 4-year-old girl. Searching for any small foreign body in the knee joint is not easy in either open or arthroscopic procedures. In this case, the surgery was made more difficult because of technical delays and diagnostic difficulties in defining the surgical plane of the needle. Arthroscopic expertise and some basic precautions can minimize the morbidity to a young patient and prevent migration into the knee joint proper.