The synovial plicae in the knee joint.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate and evaluate the prevalence of 4 kinds of synovial plicae named according to patella, which are inferior, medial, lateral and superior.


METHODS
We evaluated plicae in 318 knee arthroscopies through video records, obtained from January 1994 to December 2002 in the Arthroscopy Unit, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey. In addition, we also investigated plicae in 7 bilateral knee cadavers.


RESULTS
In the arthroscopic evaluation, the prevalence of infrapatellar synovial plica was 194 (61%), mediopatellar plica was 302 (95%), lateral patellar plica was 66 (20.7%) and suprapatellar plica was 184 (57.8%). We found that there were 8 (57%) infrapatellar synovial plicae, 13 (92%) mediopatellar plicae, 7 (50%) lateral patellar plicae and 6 (42%) suprapatellar plicae in 14 cadaveric knees.


CONCLUSIONS
We observed a high prevalence of lateral plicae and mediopatellar plicae on the cadavers and the people with arthroscopic diagnosis, and believe our results can contribute to knee anatomy and surgery.
Gurbuz
Hulya
H
Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Trakya University, 22030 Edirne, Turkey. hulyagurbuz@trakya.edu.tr
Calpur
Osman U
OU
Ozcan
Mert
M
Kutoglu
Tunc
T
Mesut
Recep
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001182:Arthroscopy; D002102:Cadaver; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013583:Synovial Membrane / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000473:pathology*