Association of the type of trauma, occurrence of bone bruise, fracture and joint effusion with the injury to the menisci and ligaments in MRI of knee trauma

Abstract

Background: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a noninvasive diagnostic tool may help clinicians in the evaluation of injuries to menisci and ligaments. Purpose: this study assessed the associations between type of trauma to knee joint, bone bruise, fracture and pathological joint effusion with injuries to menisci and ligaments of knee joint. Methods: we reviewed knee joint MRI of 175 patients aged less than 45 years old who were referred to MRI center of our University. Results: statistical analysis showed that tearing of medial meniscus (MM) is significantly more common in sport related trauma (p= 0.045) but tearing of medial collateral ligament (MCL) is significantly more common in non-sport related trauma (p= 0.005). Existence of bone bruise in knee MRI is negatively associated with tearing of medial meniscus (MM) (p=0.004) and positively associated with tearing of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) (p=0.00047) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) (p = 0.0001). Existence of fracture is associated with decreased risk of the tearing of ACL and MM (p=0.04, p=0.001 respectively). Pathologic joint effusion is significantly more common in ACL and MCL tearing (p=0.0001, p=0.004 respectively). Conclusions: as diagnostic clues, bone bruise, fracture and joint effusion may help radiologists for better assessment of injury to menisci and ligaments in MRI of patients with knee trauma.