Closed Reduction of an Irreducible Knee Dislocation: A Case Report

Addition To Orthopedic Literature: Posterolateral knee dislocations are extremely rare and generally require open reduction; however, we were able to provide closed reduction by reproducing mechanism of injury with a technique described in the literature. This is the second reported case of such accomplishment.

Introduction: Posterolateral knee dislocation is the most common form of "irreducible" knee dislocations. Buttonholing of the medial femoral condyle through medial soft tissues of the knee results in entrapment. We report the second known case of successful closed reduction.

Case Presentation: A 51-year-old female with morbid obesity sustained a right posterolateral knee dislocation shown on plain radiograph. This was accompanied by lateral patella dislocation and a dimple sign at the medial joint line after a fall from standing height produced a rotational mechanism.

Conclusion: This is the second reported case of successful closed reduction to an injury that has been generally established to be "irreducible." The technique used closely matches that described in the only other reported case and involves reproduction of the mechanism of injury. This establishes additional evidence to a previously isolated report of successful acute treatment that counters the current narrative.