Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 24, 2025
Author Spotlight: Assessing Surgical Frailty with Point-of-Care Ultrasound of Quadriceps Muscles
Published on: July 26, 2024
Identifying unstable ramp lesions using ultrasonography
Tomoyuki Kanayama1, Junsuke Nakase2, Yoshihiro Ishida1
1Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, 13-1 Takara-Machi, Kanazawa City, 920-8641, Japan.
Background:
Patients with suspected ramp lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or ultrasonography (US) healed and showed no instability based on intraoperative arthroscopic findings. The purpose of this study was to assess the use of US in evaluating ramp lesions preoperatively and intraoperatively.
Methods:
Eighty-two knees that underwent anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction between January 2022 and June 2023 were included to assess the ramp lesion complication rate and instability using arthroscopic findings. The detection rate of ramp lesions using US at the initial visit and preoperatively was also investigated. The test-retest reliability was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient and analyzed using two-way random effects and absolute agreement. The patients were divided into two groups based on the presence or absence of ramp lesions, and these data were compared using Student's t-test. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.
Results:
On ultrasound examination, 90.0% of the cases had a ramp lesion at the initial examination, of which 22.2% were poorly delineated on the day of surgery. In the cases where the ramp lesion was unstable at the time of surgery, it could be delineated using US. In the cases where the ramp lesion was stable, it was difficult to delineate the lesion using US.
Conclusions:
Unstable ramp lesions complicating ACL injuries could be detected using US.
