Clinical decision making in the acutely injured knee based on repeat clinical examination and MRI.
To determine the correlation between Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and clinical examination of the knee after an acute injury, and to see to what extent MRI affected the planned treatment, we examined 90 consecutive patients in a prospective study, clinically and with an extremity Magnetic Resonance (MR) scanner. The number of meniscal lesions, bone bruises and osteochondral lesions found on MRI was significantly higher than the clinical examinations indicated. Despite this, the treatment was only changed in 6 cases. In no case did MRI prevent a planned arthroscopy. MRI may reveal many clinically silent changes in the knee, also after minor injuries. The significance of these MRI findings must await long-term follow-up.
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Gentofte University Hospital, Denmark.
F
F
Odgaard
J
J
Tuxoe
U
U
Joergensen
B
B
Lange
G
G
Lausten
T
T
Brettlau
H S
HS
Thomsen
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007718:Knee Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D008023:Ligaments, Articular / Q000293:injuries*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012421:Rupture; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric