Diagnostic Accuracy of Ultrasonography in the Evaluation of Knee Joint Injuries Compared to Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Arthroscopy

Abstract

Introduction: Knee joint injuries are common, especially in sports persons. Injuries to soft tissues, such as ligaments, cartilage and tendons are commonly encountered. Ultrasound has become very popular modality in recent years for evaluation of knee joint injuries because of easy availability, non-invasiveness and possibility of dynamic imaging assessment.

Aim: To evaluate the role of ultrasound in evaluation of knee joint injuries compared to MRI.

Materials and methods: The prospective study included 60 patients with knee joint injuries. Ultrasound was done on both injured as well as normal knee, including dynamic assessment. It was followed by MRI of injured knee in all patients. MRI was used as Gold standard for comparison.

Results: Knee injuries are commonly seen in young age with maximum number of patients in the age group of 21-40 years. Most common cause of knee injuries is sports related trauma fallowed by road traffic accidents. It has been observed that Knee injuries show a definite male preponderance with male to female ratio of approximately 05: 01. Right knee was involved more frequently than left knee. Most frequent finding in knee injuries in our study was joint effusion. Medial meniscal tear was most common injury seen in this study.

Conclusion: Based on our results, it can be concluded that USG is an effective imaging modality that has positive effect on the management of many patients presenting with knee injuries. Knee USG has high accuracy in diagnosing menisco-ligamentous injuries. A broad availability, lower cost and fair reliability make it a modality of first choice for evaluation of knee injuries. MRI can be reserved for patients with suspicious USG results.