Clinical Examination and MRI are Compared to Arthroscopy in the Diagnosis of Meniscal and Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries of the Knee Joint a Multi-center Study

Abstract

Introduction: Meniscal injuries are the major cause of knee instability. Medical examination of the knee joint is the first line of defense and the cheapest method of diagnosis.MRI is a painless and highly sensitive research tool that may often identify even the earliest and most subtle changes in the soft tissues. Because of its specificity and sensitivity, arthroscopy is a valuable diagnostic and therapeutic tool that requires invasive surgical procedures.

Objective: To determine the efficacy of Knee injuries to the ACL and meniscus may be diagnosed using a combination of clinical signs and arthroscopy. The second objective is to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of MRI and arthroscopy for knee ACL and meniscus tears. Third, MRI and clinical evaluation have high diagnostic accuracy for identifying ACL and meniscus tears in the knee.

Material and Methods: A Multi center study was conducted by the Orthopedic Surgery Department of Qazi Hussain Ahmad Hospital in Nowshera, and tertiary care hospital of Pakistan. After the summary was accepted, the study was finished in one year and two months. The study determined that a sample size of 240 patients was necessary. After receiving informed permission, Clinical diagnosis of meniscal, ACL, PCL, LCL, and MCL tears, as well as lateral and medial collateral ligament tears, was performed on these individuals. These patients were evaluated with magnetic resonance imaging scans and arthroscopy. SPSS 22 was utilized to analyze the data, and arthroscopy was used as the benchmark.

Results: Two hundred and forty patients participated in the trial, with an average of 31.80693. Male patients predominate. This study found that anterior cruciate ligament injuries were the most common. Clinical exams and arthroscopies match, with the former being more sensitive for ACL injuries (97.5% sensitivity) and the latter being more specific for ACL and Medial Meniscal injuries (100% specificity). MRI has the greatest sensitivity (95.8%) and specificity (100%). MRI has a sensitivity of 95.8% and a specificity of 100% for ACL injuries, although clinical evaluation has a sensitivity of 97.5% and a specificity of 100%.

Conclusion: We determined that in the case of knee injuries, the clinical examination was better for diagnosing cruciate ligamentous damage, whereas MRI was superior for diagnosing meniscal injury. Therefore, we may bypass MRI and go straight to arthroscopy when treating cruciate injuries. MRI and arthroscopy may be options in complex situations, including those with meniscal damage.