Location of anterior cruciate ligament tears: A prospective study using magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

Introduction: Knee injuries associated with ligament injuries are common among population because of increasing indulgence in sports. Most common ligament injured is Anterior Cruciate Ligament.. The incidence of ACL injury has increased in the general population with the rise of participation in sports. Approximately 70% of all ACL injuries occur by noncontact mechanisms. ACL deficiency causes knee instability so decreases the performance of sports person in sports. Patient needs clinical and diagnostic MRI to see the status of ACL and other structures in the knee and to ascertain what sort of treatment patient needs conservative or operative. Even though the arthroscopy is the gold standard for diagnosing ACL tears but a non-invasive and less expansive MRI is preferred. Aims and Objectives: To find out location of ACL tear within the knee joint. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was held from February 2021 to December 2021 in orthopedic department of Govt. Medical College Srinagar for diagnosing site of ACL tear in the knee joint using Magnetic Resonance Imaging modality. This study consisted of 50 patients both males and females. Patients with age group 20 to 45 years were included in the study with history of knee trauma associated with functional knee instability with positive Lachman test, pivot shift test and anterior drawer test. Patients with previous ACL surgery and fractures around the knee were excluded. Results: In our study of 50 patients, 32(64%) patients were males and 18 patients (36%) were females. In 60% of patients had right side knee ACL tear. Majority of patients were in 25 -29 years of age group. Mean time from injury to MRI was 10+-7days (range 0-35days). Most common mechanism of ACL tear was sports injury in 30(60%) patients. Road Traffic Accident was in 15(30%) patients and others in 5(10%) patients. Majority of the ACL tears were intrasubstance tears with type III seen in 48% 0f patients seen on MRI. Conclusion: Main findings were that 44% of the ACL tear were located in proximal quarter of ACL with 20% tears type I and 22% tears type II. Majority of the tears were type three with 48% Incidence.