Evaluation of ligament and meniscal injuries following knee trauma by MRI and its correlation with arthroscopy

Bhavani HG, Furtado R, Linyu V, Akami K, Naik S

Pdf Page Numbers :- 148-152

Bhavani HG¹, Renny Furtado¹, Visar Linyu^1,*, Kewecho Akami², and Shweta Naik¹

¹Department of Radiology, Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim-403202, Goa, India

²Department of General Surgery, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi-110001, India

*Corresponding author: Dr. Visar Linyu, Department of Radiology, Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim-403202, Goa, India. Email: visarlinyu566@gmail.com

Received 20 January 2024; Revised 29 February 2024; Accepted 14 March 2024; Published 20 March 2024

Citation: Bhavani HG, Furtado R, Linyu V, Akami K, Naik S. Evaluation of ligament and meniscal injuries following knee trauma by MRI and its correlation with arthroscopy. J Med Sci Res. 2024; 12(2):148-152. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17727/JMSR.2024/12-28

Copyright: © 2024 Bhavani HG et al. Published by KIMS Foundation and Research Center. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Abstract

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive, quick and convenient investigation for evaluation of ligament and meniscal pathologies of the knee joint. Although arthroscopy is an invasive procedure it is considered the gold standard for evaluating injuries to menisci and ligaments and can be used for both diagnostic and therapeutic purpose. The purpose of this study was to evaluate cruciate ligament and meniscal injuries following knee trauma by MRI and correlate the findings with arthroscopy.

Materials and methods: This was a prospective study conducted at our institution including 61 patients with clinically suspected ligament and meniscal injury of knee. All the patients initially underwent MRI and subsequent arthroscopy. The location, type and grade of meniscal and ligament tears on MRI were recorded and later correlated with arthroscopic findings.

Results: The right knee joint was involved in 65.6 % and the left knee in 34.4 % of cases. The anterior cruciate ligament was the most commonly injured structure. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of MRI in detecting anterior cruciate ligament injury were 100%, 71.4% and 96.72 % respectively, posterior cruciate ligament injury (100%, 100% and 100% respectively), medial meniscus injury (100%, 78.8% and 88.5% respectively) and lateral meniscus injury (100%, 90.5% and 93.44% respectively).

Conclusion: MRI is highly sensitive and accurate in detection of cruciate ligament and meniscal tears. A good correlation was obtained between MRI and arthroscopic findings in this study. MRI used as a screening tool prior to arthroscopy helps in avoiding negative diagnostic arthroscopy.

Keywords: anterior cruciate ligament; posterior cruciate ligament; medial meniscus; lateral meniscus; arthroscopy