Evaluation of Knee Anatomical Parameters in Posterior Horn Medial Meniscus Injuries Using MRI

BACKGROUND Meniscus injuries, particularly posterior horn injuries of the medial meniscus are common. This study compared the anatomical parameters on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus of the knee joint in 43 patients with medial meniscus injury with 54 uninjured knee joints. MATERIAL AND METHODS We retrospectively analyzed data from 97 patients (43 with medial meniscus injury and 54 controls) who presented with knee pain without a history of trauma from 2021 to 2022. We assessed and compared various knee anatomical parameters through quantitative measurements on MRI images, including the posterior condylar angle (PCA), the angle between the posterior tangent of the distal femoral shaft and the transepicondylar axis (PTFS-TEA), the ratio of medial femoral condyle length to medial tibial plateau length at knee extension (MFL/MTL), medial and lateral tibial slopes (MTS and LTS), the difference between MTS and LTS (MTS-LTS), the anatomical medial proximal tibia angle (aMPTA), the anatomical lateral distal femoral angle (aLDFA), and the distal condylar angle (DCA). RESULTS Our analysis revealed no statistically significant differences in the knee anatomical parameters assessed between the study group and the control group (P>0.05), including PCA, PTFS-TEA, MFL/MTL, MTS, LTS, MTS-LTS, aMPTA, aLDFA, and DCA. Further analysis by sex also showed no significant differences (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS The assessed knee geometric parameters do not appear to be risk factors for non-traumatic posterior horn injuries of the medial meniscus.