Hemarthrosis Associated with Failure of a Mobile Meniscal-Bearing Total Knee Arthroplasty

The New Jersey Low Contact Stress (LCS) knee system (DePuy, Warsaw, Indiana) was introduced in the late 1970s by Buechel and Pappas1,2. Two types of mobile bearings are available: a meniscal-bearing system and a rotating-platform system. In a previous study, we reported eight cases of symptomatic polyethylene failure in patients who had received a meniscal-bearing knee replacement3. Previous authors have reported direct vascular injury as a result of total knee arthroplasty4-10, and one group of investigators reported a case in which vascular injury was caused by the prosthesis itself11. However, vascular injury caused by failure of a polyethylene meniscal bearing has never been reported, to our knowledge. We report the case of a patient in whom hemarthrosis and calf hematoma occurred in association with the failure of a polyethylene meniscal bearing of an LCS knee replacement. The patient was informed that data concerning her case would be submitted for publication.