Knee dislocation may damage blood vessels and lead to amputation! First aid principle: ice compress + fixation

Sports injuries are frequent in summer, so be especially careful about knee dislocations which can damage blood vessels! Doctors point out that among all sports injuries, knee injuries are the most serious. Because when the knee joint is dislocated, it often means that the ligaments and tendons are damaged, and the nerves and blood vessels may also be broken. If not treated in time, amputation may occur.

Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital recently admitted a 59-year-old woman named Chen, who loves sports but has a history of cruciate ligament injuries in the knee. Unexpectedly, while doing yoga a few days ago, her left leg suddenly cramped and she fell. Her left knee was dislocated as her knee hit the ground. When she was sent to the hospital for reduction treatment, it was discovered that there were broken blood vessels in the knee joint.

Popliteal artery rupture increases risk of amputation

In order to prevent the emergency from escalating, cardiac surgery and plastic surgery were activated to work together to perform vascular ligation and fasciotomy, which finally saved her from the risk of amputation. Cardiovascular surgeon Huang Shiming pointed out that the knee joint is the most vulnerable joint in the body to injury, especially knee dislocation. Once a blood vessel is broken, emergency treatment is required.

Because there is a popliteal artery in the knee joint, which is closely attached to the popliteal surface of the femur and the posterior part of the knee joint capsule to the calf, and then to the small blood vessels at the end, the popliteal artery is usually easily damaged when the knee is dislocated or reduced. There is only one popliteal artery. If it is broken, the extremities will have no blood supply and the feet will begin to swell and become cold, and may even turn purple or black, posing a risk of amputation.

Golden 6 hours to prevent muscle necrosis

In general, the treatment of the popliteal artery requires restoring perfusion within the golden 6 hours as much as possible to reduce ischemia time and damage to the blood vessels in the limbs. When the patient arrived at the hospital, his left leg tissue was bleeding and swollen profusely, he had paraesthesia and was unable to move, and was close to acute hypoxia and was in a very critical condition.

The emergency team then performed an urgent bypass surgery using the great saphenous vein in the foot to connect the two ends of the severed blood vessel and restore perfusion to the tissue. Due to the increased pressure and compartment syndrome, the director of plastic surgery, Huang Jieqi, performed a fasciotomy as soon as possible to release the pressure and reduce the patient's muscle tissue necrosis and the risk of amputation.

Knee dislocation: ice pain relief + fixation

Finally, the doctor reminded that when a knee dislocation occurs, in addition to applying ice to relieve pain, the highest guiding principle is "never move" and immediately fix the dislocated part. This is because dislocation not only affects the joint bones, but also the surrounding blood vessels and nerves are pulled. Improper movements may over-pull these important tissues and cause serious injuries.

In addition to obesity, any high-intensity pulling sports may affect joint movement, such as football, basketball, badminton, rugby, etc., or those who have had knee injuries should wear knee pads during activities to prevent joint injuries and dislocations.