Information about a piece of news titled Knee injuries - one in ten patients has a significant articular cartilage lesion
Knee injuries - one in ten patients has a significant articular cartilage lesion
Intoduction
The incidence of articular cartilage lesions with knee injuries has been poorly documented previously. This is why Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center did a prospective registration of cartilage lesions in knees subjected to knee arthroscopy during a 6 months period by three hospitals in Oslo. This study is published in the January issue of American Journal of Sport Medicine and demonstrates that 11 % of the patients has a cartilage lesion which may be suitable for cartilage repair procedures.
Arthroscopy showed that 11 % of patients with knee injuries had cartilage lesions suitable for cartilage repair procedures.
A special form developed by the International Society of Cartilage Repair was used in the study at the three hospitals to register symptoms, onset of injury and intraoperative findings concerning cartilage injury. All patients were submitted to hospital for a knee problem that indicated surgery. During the 6 month period 993 knee arthroscopies were registered.
The study shows that sports participation was the most common activity at the time of injury, with team handball, soccer
and skiing as the most frequent.
About half of the patients assessed that their knee function was more than 60 % reduced as a result of the injury. A full thickness cartilage lesion was found in 11 % of the patients, with patella dislocation (57 %) and anterior cruciate ligament ruptures (29 %) as the most common associated injuries. A localized cartilage lesion was a frequent finding in younger age groups (about 30 years). A notable finding is that 6 % of the patient had a size above 2 cm2, which is considered suitable for operative treatment.
This study was performed at Ullevål University Hospital, Akershus University Hospitaland Martina Hansen Hospital. Asbjørn Årøen MD at Akershus University Hospital conducted the study in collaboration with his colleagues Sverre Løken MD at Ullevål University Hospital and Stig Heir MD at Martina Hansen Hospital. Professor Lars Engebretsen MD PhD at Norwegian College of Sports and Ullevål University Hospital supervised this study. Odd Granlund MD at Akershus University Hospitaland Elling Alvik MD and Arne Ekeland MD PhD with Martina Hansen Hospital have also contributed to the study.
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