[Ultrasonic examination of ankle and knee ligament injuries]

Ultrasound examinations and stress radiographs of 61 patients with suspected ligamentar lesion of the ankle and knee joints were compared in order to clear, whether radiography could be replaced by sonography. In our experience, the opening of the joint gap can also be adequately demonstrated even without ionizing radiation and the results achieved by ultrasound were nearly as accurate as by X-rays. Being a rather simple, inexpensive and real time method, producing acceptable visual information and practicable on almost all preexisting equipments, sonography is advised for detecting of ligamentar lesions.