[Management of a suspected lesion of a cruciate ligament]

After classifying and describing the epidemiology of various traumatic ligament lesions of the knee: "isolated rupture", "triads" and "pentads", the author describes their mechanism and clinical presentation. Plain x-rays and stress x-rays, possibly under anaesthesia, are necessary to establish the diagnosis of the lesions. In 1991, in the absence of triads, pentads or radiological bone avulsion, they are followed by diagnostic arthroscopy to determine the partial or complete nature of the cruciate ligament rupture; stress films and arthroscopy under anaesthesia can be advantageously replaced by high performance MRI in the months to come.