Retained Drain after Anterior Cruciate Ligament Surgery : A Silent Threat to an Athlete’s Career: A Case Report

Introduction Breaking of surgical drain during the removal and retention of broken drain fragment is an avoidable complication. Such a complication brings disrepute to the operating team and causes psychological as well as further surgical trauma to the patient as a return to the operating room is required many a times to remove the retained drain fragment. Case Report We report a case of an undetected retained drain fragment inside the knee joint of a 24-year-old male international kabaddi player, who remained asymptomatic for 5 months, when the residual drain fragment was removed arthroscopically. No such case has been reported earlier in the literature after arthroscopic surgery. Conclusion Retained drain fragment after arthroscopic surgery can stay silent for months. Hence, a high index of suspicion should be maintained by surgeons to detect such a complication at the earliest. We suggest that every arthroscopic surgeon should follow a standard protocol while inserting and removing the drain to avoid this mistake.