Arthroscopy: a reliable diagnostic tool in lesions of knee joint

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the accuracy of clinical diagnosis in lesions of knee joint and to compare it with arthroscopy diagnosis. This comparative study was conducted in the department of Orthopedics Hayatabad Medical Complex, PGMI Peshawar. Duration of study was from July 2000 to, June 2002. Patients with symptoms of knee pain, clicking, locking and instability were admitted and proper history and clinical examination was done to reach a clinical diagnosis. This was followed by arthroscopy. The clinical and arthroscopy findings were compared. The total number of patients was 64. There were 52 males and 12 females with male female ratio of 4 1. The age ranged from 18 to 50 years with mean age of 35 year. Right side was involved in 24 and left side in 40 patients. The results of the study showed that the accuracy of clinical diagnosis was 65.6%. On arthroscopy, medial or lateral menisci injury was found in 18[28.1%], cruciate ligament injury in 14[21.9%] and osteoarthrosis in 6[9.37%] No major complication was observed in the study. Arthroscopy is a valuable method of diagnosis in knee joint lesions