A large metallic cyst caused by wear particles after total knee arthroplasty

Introduction

A symptomatic cyst is an uncommon complication after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). We present a case of a 77-year-old woman with a large cyst in the right knee caused by metal wear debris from the failure of a Miller-Galante I TKA performed 13 years earlier.

Case presentation

The patient was treated with a two-stage operation including revision of the TKA followed by excision of the cyst, because there was a direct communication between the joint cavity and the cyst, and because the patient reported pain corresponding to the cystic area after revision. The patient was pain-free and had a satisfactory result 17 months after the second operation, without recurrence of cyst formation.

Conclusion

We recommend two-stage surgery in which the first-stage is correction of the intra-articular pathology with revision TKA and the second-stage is excision of the cyst.