Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 23, 2026
Software-Assisted Quantitative Measurement of Osteoarthritic Subchondral Bone Thickness
Published on: March 18, 2022
ASSESSMENT OF THE REPRODUCIBILITY OF THE OUTERBRIDGE AND FSA CLASSIFICATIONS FOR CHONDRAL LESIONS OF THE KNEE
Neylor Pace Lasmar1, Rodrigo Campos Pace Lasmar2, Rodrigo Barreiros Vieira3
1Head of the Orthopedics and Traumatology Service, São José University Hospital, Minas Gerais School of Medical Sciences, Belo Horizonte (HUSJ-FCMMG-BH) and Titular Professor and Chair of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Minas Gerais School of Medical Sciences; Former President of SBOT.
Objective:
To assess the reproducibility of the Outerbridge and the French Society of Arthroscopy classifications between different observers, and to establish a comparison between them.
Method:
Thirty videos on randomly selected knee arthroscopy procedures demonstrating chondral lesions were used. These were classified by six observers: two third-year orthopedics residents and four orthopedic surgeons, of whom two were knee surgery specialists. The intraobserver and interobserver reliability was evaluated by means of the kappa index.
Results:
The result from the complete evaluation on the Outerbridge classification with all the observers gave a kappa index of 0.434411. For the classification proposed by the French Society of Arthroscopy, the kappa index was 0.45166.
Conclusion:
The Outerbridge and French Society of Arthroscopy classifications for chondral lesions are moderately reproducible between observers. Comparing the two classifications, the proposal from the French Society of Arthroscopy was shown to be more reproducible, and the authors suggest that this classification should be used preferentially in clinical practice for evaluations on chondral lesions of the knee.
