The utility of clinical examination in the diagnosis of medial meniscus injury in comparison with arthroscopic findings

A prospective study was conducted to evaluate the utility of clinical meniscal tests (joint line tenderness, McMurray test, Apley test and Steinmann I sign) in the diagnosis of medial meniscus injury. The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of these tests were calculated in comparison with arthroscopic findings in 50 patients presented to us between January 2005 and January 2006 with knee pain and clinical manifestations of meniscal injury. The arthroscopy revealed that 32 patients (30 males and 2 females, aged 19–39 with mean of 27 years) had medial meniscus injury. Joint line tenderness showed the best diagnostic accuracy (80%) while Steinmann I sign had promising diagnostic characteristics. Similar to previous reports, the present study confirmed that caution should be used when interpreting the McMurray and Apley tests in the diagnosis of medial meniscus injury.