Study of correlation between clinical, magnetic resonance imaging, and arthroscopic findings in meniscal and anterior cruciate ligament injuries

Abstract

Background: Approx. 28% of patients presents to orthopedic OPD with complaints of knee pain. Common medical complications include an unstable knee, chronic knee pain, and post traumatic arthritis. Aim: To study the correlation between clinical, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and arthroscopic findings in knee injuries. Materials and Methods: About 30 cases with history of rotational injury having knee pain and recurrent swelling were subjected to study. Results: MRI had better sensitivity (0.95 vs. 0.85) and specificity (1.0 vs. 0.5) in comparison with clinical examination for medial meniscus. In lateral meniscus injury (sensitivity 0.65 vs. 0.61 and specificity 0.95 vs. 0.92) and in ACL injury (Sensitivity 0.77 vs. 0.8 and specificity 1.0 vs. 0.96) the sensitivity and specificity of MRI versus clinical examination showed minimal difference. Conclusion: Our conclusion is that carefully performed clinical examination can give equal or better diagnosis of meniscal and ACL injuries in comparison with MRI scan. MRI may be used as an additional tool for diagnosis.

Keywords

• Anterior cruciate ligament
• arthroscopy
• clinical
• lateral meniscus
• medial meniscus
• magnetic resonance imaging