Magnetic Resonance Imaging Diagnosis of Meniscus and Cruciate Injuries.

We examined 83 patients who had undergone both MRI and arthroscopy. The respective sensitivities, specificities, and accuracies of MRI of the knee were 94.6%, 76.1%, and 85.5% for medial meniscal tears, 80.0%, 82.8%, and 84.3% for lateral meniscal tears, 100%, 97.1%, and 97.6% for anterior cruciate ligament injuries, and 100%, 98.7%, and 98.8% for posterior cruciate ligament injuries. The reasons for inconsistencies between MRI and arthroscopic findings were suggested as follows; 1) a time lag between MRI and arthroscopy, 2) possibilites of lateral meniscal injuries in lateral infrapatellar approach, 3) variability of meniscal tears near the capsule, 4) difficulty of diagnosis of lateral meniscal tears at the posterior forms near the hiatus popliteus tendon.