ABSTRACT
Introduction: The Hoffa fracture is an uncommon coronal plane fracture involving the femoral condyles. The coronal nature of the fracture makes it hard to diagnose clinic-radiologically. Case Report: A 42-year-old male patient developed pain associated with swelling in his right knee after a two-wheeler accident. He consulted his general practitioner who missed the Hoffa fracture on plain radiographs and treated him conservatively with analgesics. The pain did not subside and he visited our emergency department where a computed tomography (CT) scan revealed a Hoffa fracture of the lateral condyle. He was taken up for open surgery, and while fixing the lateral condylar fracture, we found an undisplaced medial condylar Hoffa fracture of the ipsilateral femur. This fracture was initially missed on the CT scan. Both the fractures were internally fixed and the patient was put on rehabilitation. At the end of the 6-month follow-up, the patient had a full knee range of motion. Conclusion: Careful and detailed CT imaging and looking for fractures other than Hoffa is important, so as not to miss any associated bony injuries. Furthermore, the treating surgeon needs to look for other bony injuries during open or arthroscopic fixation of Hoffa's fracture.
ABSTRACT
We report the first case of perioperative visual loss due to cortical blindness after supine cervical spine surgery. A 46-year-old female presented with severe right-sided brachialgia of 1½ years' duration. Her magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (cervical spine) showed severe right foraminal stenosis at C5-6. She underwent C5-6 anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. Nine hours after surgery, during a routine postoperative round, the patient complained of complete bilateral visual loss. The fundus examination and pupillary light reflex were normal. MRI of the brain showed the posterior cerebral artery infarct with hypoplasia of the left vertebral artery. She was transferred to the neurointensive care unit where antiplatelet treatment was started along with heparin. Her vision slowly began to improve, and at the end of 1 year, she had a reasonable visual acuity in both eyes. It is now standard practice in our institution to check patients' vision immediately after surgery.
ABSTRACT
Aortic rupture is a rare but possible complication during spine surgery. It may manifest as severe intraoperative hemorrhage or present in a delayed manner after the formation of an aneurysm or an arteriovenous fistula. Though it is commonly encountered during anterior surgeries involving the surgical field close to the thoracic or abdominal aorta, it can also occur during a posterior surgery. Aortic injury could be associated with surgeries ranging from the commonly performed pedicle screw instrumentation to a complex three-column osteotomy. It can also occur, as in the reported case, while performing complex procedures in the presence of a pre-existing aneurysm or aortic adhesions due to coexisting infectious or inflammatory pathologies. The treatment options for such aortic ruptures range from open repair to endovascular stenting techniques. We discuss a case of an aortic rupture that occurred during a posterior vertebral column resection (PVCR) procedure performed on a 58-year-old female with spastic paraparesis secondary to tuberculous spondylodiscitis and the lessons learnt.
