Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery
Original ArticlesArthroscopic evaluation of articular cartilage lesions in posterior cruciate ligament—Deficient knees*
Section snippets
Methods
To diagnose and grade PCL insufficiency, bilateral posterior-stress radiographs were taken of all patients in 90° of knee flexion with a posterior-directed force on the tibia of 200 N using the Telos device (Telos GmbH, Marburg, Germany).18, 19 Stress radiographs were evaluated according to the technique described by Jacobsen20, 21 and others.22 The PCL was determined to be insufficient if a side-to-side difference (SSD) equal to 5 mm or more was present when the knee was stressed.
Standardized
Results
Demographic data for the patient population and subgroups are given in Table 1.Empty Cell All patients (N = 181) Group I ≤30 days (n = 22) Group II 31 d-1 yr (n = 64) Group III 1-5 years (n = 50) Group IV >5 years (n = 45) Time from injury to arthroscopy (mo) 48 ± 74.9 0.4 ± 0.2 6.6 ± 2.9 28 ± 12.8 152.1 ± 87 Age at injury (yr) 26.9 ± 9.4 28.4 ± 7.8 28 ± 10.2 28.7 ± 10.7 22.8 ± 5.4* Side-to-side difference of posterior tibial displacement on stress
Discussion
The natural course of the PCL-deficient knee, in particular the progression of degenerative articular cartilage changes, is still a focus of current debate.2, 4 In a larger prospective study of 133 sports active and young PCL deficient patients, Shelbourne et al.5 found no correlation between objective and subjective knee function and the grade of posterior laxity. Also, the degenerative changes seen with standard radiographs were not significantly increased after a mean follow-up of 5 years.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgment: We gratefully acknowledge the help of Mrs. Petra Broschinski for data acquisition.
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Address correspondence and reprint requests to Michael J. Strobel, M.D., Orthopädische Gemeinschaftspraxis, Hebbelstrasse 14a, 94315 Straubing, Germany. E-mail: [email protected]