Leg saving treatment

Our typical patient has a number of orthopedic chief complaints when they arrive at our intake station. Today, a patient presented with swollen left knee, but pain out of proportion to a routine diagnosis. He was transported via wheelchair. On the medical bed, even the slightest touch of his left knee caused him excruciating pain. We immediately thought infection, after seeing the swelling and feeling the redness to the touch. We started to prescribe antibiotics, but Bac Si Ha wanted to see if he could drain any fluid to relieve the pressure. After thoroughly cleaning the area and the insertion of a 21 Gauge needle, we started to aspirate yellow infected fluid. Using only 3 cc syringes, a 3-person team of Bac Si Ha, myself and Em Bich started to drain, discard, and re-drain the knee multiple times. After approximately 100 cc of yellow infected fluid, the swelling was dramatically decreased, and the pain was substantially less. It is possible that without the immediate procedure of aspirating the infected fluid, the course of antibiotic would not have been effective.  Now the antibiotic will have a better chance of eradicating the infection. Without this treatment, its possible the patient would have become septic, and possibly lost this limb to amputation.

He will follow-up in the medical clinic in 3-days with a physician for further treatment and evaluation. Hopefully this is the beginning of a completely successful treatment.