MRI of Native Knee Cartilage Delamination Injuries

The purpose of this article is to describe the normal imaging appearance of cartilage and the pathophysiologic findings, imaging appearance, and surgical management of cartilage delamination.

Delamination injuries of knee cartilage signify surgical lesions that can lead to significant morbidity without treatment. These injuries may present with clinical symptoms identical to those associated with meniscal injury, and arthroscopic identification can be difficult, thereby creating a role for imaging diagnosis. A low sensitivity of imaging identification of delamination injury of the knee is reported in the available literature, although vast improvements in MRI of cartilage have since been introduced.