Arthroscopic arthrolysis of knee arthrofibrosis

ABSTRACT

There are three different means for treatment of knee joint stiffness; manual mobilization under anaesthesia, arthroscopic arthrolysis or open arthrolysis. The totally atraumatic nature of arthroscopy and the more accurate lysis of adhesions permits passive and active kinesitherapy from the moment the patient recovers from anaesthesia without much pain. This work represented the arthroscopic technique, the postoperative programme and the results in 25 patients with average age 29 years [ranged 5-54]. All cases had previous intra-articular knee surgery and the average period of arthrolysis since the original surgery was 7 months [ranged 2-18]. The average follow up period was 9.5 months [ranged 4-28]. Postoperatively, a special programme of passive and active assisted exercises was followed to reach the maximum gained flexion and extension. According to the criteria of Parisien [1988], the results were 13 excellent, 9 good, 2 fair and one poor. The average preoperative flexion range was 70, while the average final postoperative flexion range was 123C