Percutaneous Skeletal Fixation of Painful Subchondral Bone Marrow Edema of the Knee

To investigate the change in patient-reported pain after percutaneous skeletal fixation (PSF) and to determine the success rate of PSF in the prevention of additional intervention for the treatment of painful subchondral bone marrow edema (SBME) of the knee over a 2-year postoperative period.

This was a retrospective, single-surgeon analysis of patients undergoing PSF for painful, atraumatic SBME of the knee confirmed on preoperative magnetic resonance imaging with a minimum 2-year follow-up. Inclusion criteria were age >18 years, pain localized to the area of edema, failure of nonsurgical intervention (4 weeks of physical therapy and non-steroidal medication use), and absence of tricompartmental Kellgren-Lawrence grade 4 osteoarthritis. All patients underwent arthroscopy, followed by isolated PSF without additional chondral procedures. Pre- and postoperative visual analog scale scores were compared. The primary outcome measure of success was defined as a lack of additional intervention. This included viscosupplementation, corticosteroid injection, or conversion to arthroplasty.

A total of 74 patients with a mean age of 47.2 years and average follow-up time of 38.9 months (range 24-61 months) were evaluated. Successful treatment was noted in 61 patients (82.4%). Of the 13 patients who did not respond to PSF, 5 (6.8%) had been converted to arthroplasty, 11 received viscosupplementation, and 8 required cortisone injections. The average visual analog scale score decreased from 7.55 preoperatively to 3.16 at 2-year follow-up (P < .001). The average body mass index of successfully treated patients (28.2) was significantly less than that of the patients experiencing failure (32.2) (P = .001).

Patients undergoing PSF for the treatment of painful SBME may expect a decrease in knee pain and low rates of additional intervention over a 2-year postoperative period.

Level IV; Therapeutic Case Series.