[Diagnostic arthroscopy and arthroscopic surgery: experiences with 500 knee arthroscopies]

A diagnosis by clinical examination and arthrography was not possible in 160 out of 500 arthroscopically examined patients, most of them with post-traumatic knee disorders. In 157 cases the clinical diagnosis was wrong, and in another 58 cases incomplete. Only in 89 patients (18%) arthroscopy proved the clinical diagnosis to be correct. At arthroscopy, a meniscal injury was found in 156 patients (medial meniscus 57, lateral meniscus 64, both menisci 8). With regard to the menisci a previous arthrography was found correct only in 103 out of 213 cases, i.e. in 48%. Lesions of the articular cartilage were present in 210 patients, although they were expected clinically in only one third of these cases. Normal intraarticular structures were found in 95 examinations. The arthroscopic examination was insufficient three times because of a protruding fat pad, and wrong in 2 patients in whom an arthroscopically diagnosed meniscal tear could not be found at arthrotomy. The morbidity of arthroscopy is small. Only complications: A local allergic reaction because of a wound spray in four cases, bronchial asthma following general anesthesia in two patients. No infection occurred. Several therapeutic procedures may be carried out through the arthroscope. So loose bodies were removed from the joint in 39 and partial meniscectomy performed in 13 patients, all of them being treated as out-patients.