Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery
Original ArticleA Prospective Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of the Incidence of Posterolateral and Multiple Ligament Injuries in Acute Knee Injuries Presenting With a Hemarthrosis
Section snippets
Methods
Approval for this project was obtained through the Human Use Institutional Review Board at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. All patients with acute (within 30 days) primary knee injuries who underwent MRI scans over a 90-day period were prospectively identified. All patients who had knee MRI scans obtained during this time filled out the reason for their examination and the date of injury, verified that they had some swelling of their knee within 24 hours of their injury, and
Results
Out of a total of 331 patients (mean age, 28.6 years) with acute knee injuries with a hemarthrosis, 187 (56%) had a ligament injury (Table 1 and Fig 1). Patients were categorized into 1 of 4 age groups (≤17 years, 18 to 26 years, 27 to 39 years, and ≥40 years). There were no significant differences between the age groups and the mean values for any of the previously mentioned injuries.
Discussion
MRI scans have been found to be increasingly accurate in the diagnosis of acute knee ligament tears. In addition, an MRI technique was recently reported to be accurate in the identification of posterolateral knee injuries.12 Because it has been reported that the historical incidence of posterolateral knee injuries has been underestimated and under-reported, with a reported incidence of between 4% and 7%,1, 5, 16, 17, 26 it was believed that a large prospective MRI study would provide, as
Conclusions
This study showed that in this population, the incidence of posterolateral knee injuries in patients with acute knee ligament injuries with a hemarthrosis was 9.1%. It also verified that most PCL and PLC injuries occur in combination with other ligament injuries.
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The authors report no conflict of interest.