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A 41-year-old man with an unremarkable medical history presented with a painful knee after a sports injury. He was diagnosed with a medial meniscal tear. Symptoms did not abate after 6 months of physical therapy, and he underwent arthroscopic partial medial meniscectomy. A week after beginning physical therapy he experienced a knee effusion, decreased ROM, and inability to flex his quadriceps. His knee was aspirated. Blood tests were ordered and his complete blood count, liver functions tests, and INR/PTT were normal. The patient had recurrent effusions requiring three additional joint aspirations. Ten weeks after the initial surgery, the patient underwent a second arthroscopy, during which a hematoma was removed and a synovectomy performed. The patient continued bleeding from the incisions after portals were sutured, and he was admitted to the hospital. A hematologist was consulted and comprehensive platelet aggregation testing revealed previously undiagnosed Glanzmann's thrombasthenia. The patient began treatment with platelet infusions and desmopressin and progressed to a full recovery. Clinical suspicion for surgical patients with unusual repetitive postoperative bleeding should include previously undetected rare bleeding disorders even in adults.
Case Reports in Orthopedics (2015) 2015:127846
Copyright © 2015 John E. Zvijac et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.