Knee arthroscopies: who gets them, what does the radiologist report, and what does the surgeon find?

Figures & data

Table 1. The 24 most frequent peroperative diagnoses of all arthroscopies performed by public healthcare providers in the Skåne region, Sweden, in the period 2007–2009. These are arranged in descending prevalence

ICD-10	Text	n	%	Mean age
M23.2M	Derangement of meniscus due to old tear or injury, medial	1,016	25	44
M17.1	Other primary gonarthrosis	471	12	55
M23.5	Chronic instability of knee	257	6	32
M23.2L	Derangement of meniscus due to old tear or injury, lateral	223	5	38
M23.2	Derangement of meniscus due to old tear or injury	214	5	42
S83.2M	Tear of meniscus, current, medial	158	4	34
M17.3	Other posttraumatic gonarthrosis	158	4	41
M65.9G	Synovitis and tenosynovitis, knee, unspecified	153	4	33
M67.2	Synovial hypertrophy, not specified elsewhere	112	3	29
S83.5	Sprain and strain involving cruciate ligament of knee	85	2	28
M17.5	Other secondary gonarthrosis	83	2	51
M25.5G	Pain in joint, knee	80	2	33
M23.4	Loose body in knee	75	2	35
S83.5R	Sprain and strain involving anterior cruciate ligament of knee	72	2	28
M93.2G	Osteochondritis dissecans, knee	71	2	25
M00.9G	Pyogenic arthritis, unspecified, knee	67	2	55
M79.6G	Pain in limb, knee	65	2	30
S83.2L	Tear of meniscus, current, lateral	65	2	29
S83.0	Dislocation of patella	56	1	20
S83.7	Injury to multiple structures of knee	50	1	31
S83.3M	Tear of articular cartilage of knee, current, medial	50	1	39
M00.0G	Staphylococcal arthritis, knee	46	1	56
M22.2	Patellofemoral disorders	40	1	27
M23.8	Other internal derangements of knee	37	1	31

Table 2. Frequency of patients with the diagnosis “derangement of meniscus due to old tear or injury” (code M23.2) or “knee osteoarthritis” (OA; code M17) examined by knee radiography or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and with findings indicating OA

	Random subset with diagnostic code M23.2 or M17, n = 502
Preoperative imaging modality	n (% of total)	With OA on imaging n (%)^a	Without OA on imaging n (%)^a
Weight-bearing radiograph	262 (52)	108 (41)	154 (59)
MRI	248 (49)	107 (44)	141 (56)
Total	395 (79)	182 (46)	213 (54)

^a Percentages of each imaging modality group.

Table 3. Frequency (n=1898) and types of meniscal tears and associated findings in patients diagnosed with “derangement of meniscus due to old tear or injury” (code M23.2) or “knee osteoarthritis” (OA; code M17)

	Type of meniscal tear
	Degenerative/flap or horizontal		Radial		Bucket-handle/longitudinal
	Medial	Lateral	Medial	Lateral	Medial	Lateral
	n = 1,002	n = 294	n = 79	n = 53	n = 346	n = 124
Age, mean (SD)	50 (12)	49 (15)	51 (14)	32 (14)	35 (13)	37 (15)
Women, n (%)	339 (34)	124 (42)	18 (23)	14 (26)	102 (29)	51 (41)
Location of tear, n (%)
posterior horn	796 (79)	87 (30)	59 (75)	6 (11)	181 (52)	79 (64)
body	168 (17)	155 (53)	16 (20)	43 (81)	147 (42)	33 (27)
anterior horn	38 (4)	52 (18)	4 (5)	4 (8)	8 (2)	12 (10)
Any cartilage damage
ipsilateral
compartment, n (%)	774 (77)	221 (75)	65 (82)	28 (53)	181 (52)	72 (58)
ACL injury, n (%)	139 (14)	61 (21)	6 (8)	19 (36)	154 (45)	35 (28)