MRI Assessment of Anterolateral Ligament Injury of Knee Joint

Abstract

Background. Clinical diagnosis of the anterolateral ligament (ALL) insufficiency is rather complicated. Accordingly, it is necessary to use MRI for accurate diagnosis in patients with complex anterolateral instability of knee joint. The purpose of our work was to determine the possibilities of MRI in the diagnosis of anterolateral ligament lesions. Materials and methods. A retrospective analysis of 224 MRI studies of patients with ACL injuries was performed. 107 studies were performed on a 3.0 Tesla device and 117 studies were performed on a 1.5 Tesla device. Results. In 29 cases (13%), it was impossible to visualize ALL on MRI, so these patients were excluded from the study, while 195 patients (87%) remained in the study. 128 (65.6%) of the 195 remaining patients did not show signs of ALL rupture, while 67 patients (34.4%) had sings of rupture. In the group with ALL lesions, the femoral part was injured in 50.7% (34 patients), the tibial part in 19.4% (13 patients), and the middle part in 29.9% (20 patients). Conclusions. 1. In our study, we determined that the ALL was visualized in 87% of patients with ACL injury. 2. In our patients’ group, the frequency of a concomitant ALL lesion together with an ACL lesion was 34.4%, when an MRI study was performed up to 6 weeks from the moment of trauma.