Soft Tissue Case 2 Additional Images

Intra-articular wound (air in joint space)

This patient sustained a severe knee injury after a motorcycle accident. The blue arrows indicate metallic foreign bodies seen near a large skin defect from the injury while the red arrow indicates air within the knee joint.

This patient presented to the emergency room after a motorcycle accident with ankle pain, road rash on the lateral leg and had a punctate wound over the lateral malleolus. On the radiographs, a small distal fibular fracture is present as well as air in the ankle joint. This patient was taken to surgery for a wash-out.

This patient was involved in a motor vehicle accident and suffered an open patellar fracture. As indicated by the arrows, there was air present within the knee joint.

Another example of an open patellar fracture. The blue arrow indicates air in the joint space.

This patient had a severe injury to his upper extremity where it was caught in a machine and he suffered multiple lacerations to the forearm as well as a torn biceps tendon. The arrow indicates that there is air within the elbow joint space. The orthopedic surgeons performed a triceps and flexor carpi radialis tendon repairs in addition to the wound irrigation and complex wound closure.

Same patient with the arrow showing the intra-articular air in another plane.

Last additional image with the clinical pearl-don't forget to look for intra-articular air in the radiograph as seen in this comminuted elbow fracture.