Emergency Medicine

FURTHER READING

494 Practical Procedures

(iii) Remove all available fluid – this may be up to 70 mL or more

(a) gently squeeze the suprapatellar region to ‘milk’ any residual

fluid.

(iv) Look for evidence of fat globules floating on the surface of blood

dispelled into a kidney dish from a haemarthrosis, which would

indicate an intra-articular fracture.

COMPLICATIONS

1 Joint infection — poor aseptic technique may rarely result in septic arthritis.

2 Local haematoma, haemarthrosis.

3 Synovial fistula.

FURTHER READING

Roberts JR, Hedges JR (2009) Clinical Procedures in Emergency Medicine, 5th edn.

Elsevier, New York.