Is there a role for sonography in the diagnosis of tears of the knee menisci?

✍ Scribed by Roberto Azzoni; Paolo Cabitza

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 304 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0091-2751
• DOI: 10.1002/jcu.10106

✦ Synopsis

Purpose:

The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of sonography in diagnosing tears of the knee menisci.

Methods:

In this retrospective study, we reviewed the sonographic examinations of the knees of 321 patients diagnosed with a torn meniscus on the basis of clinical findings. of the 321 knees imaged, 216 were also examined using mri or ct. arthroscopic meniscectomy was performed on 126 knees.

Results:

Mri or ct did not confirm 48% (71 cases) of the positive sonographic diagnoses (ie, false positives) and 72% (50 cases) of the negative sonographic diagnoses (ie, false negatives). thus, the sonographic diagnosis was correct in 95 cases (44%) and incorrect in 121 cases (56%), yielding low rates of sensitivity (60%) and specificity (21%). among the 126 cases in which arthroscopic meniscectomy was performed, arthroscopy confirmed 100% of the mri or ct diagnoses of meniscal tears.

Conclusions:

Our results indicate that sonography is not accurate enough to be used as the only imaging modality for diagnosing tears of the knee menisci.