Correlation between Clinical and Arthroscopic Findings in Meniscal Tear of Knee

The meniscus is the most commonly injured structure in the knee joint. Carefully performed clinical examination can give better diagnosis of meniscal tear. The aim of this study was to find out the correlation between clinical and arthroscopic findings in meniscal tear of knee. This cross sectional observational study was conducted in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, BSMMU, Dhaka from July 2012 to June 2014. Thirty patients of meniscal tear were selected as per inclusion and exclusion criteria. After proper evaluation and clinical examination of these patient arthroscopic examinations was done under spinal anesthesia. A total number of 30 patients were recruited in this study. Twenty seven (90%) patients were male and only 3(10%) were female. Mean±SD of age was 26.00±5.55 and range was 17-34 years. Out of 30 patients 19(63.3%) had right knee affected and the rest 11(36.7%) had left knee affected. It was found from clinical diagnosis that most of the patients had MM injury (73.4%) and LM injury was in 26.6% patients. From arthroscopic diagnosis we found most of the patients had multiple types of injury (40.0%) followed by 26.7% patents had isolated MM injury, 16.6% patients had isolated LM injury, 10.0% patients had other injuries like ACL, PCL or MCL and rest 6.7% patients had no injury at all. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy of clinical diagnosis in diagnosis of MM injury were 94.4%, 58.3%, 77.3%, 87.5% and 80.0% respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy of clinical diagnosis in diagnosis of LM injury were 85.7%, 91.3%, 75.0%, 95.5% and 90.0% respectively. Clinical evaluation may diagnose meniscal tear accurately.