Acl tear on mri. It is only with careful probing that the orthopedic surgeon finds the true high grade acl tear 5. Imaging of athletic. Early diagnosis and prevention of additional knee trauma 9 along with preoperative rehabilitation 11 and cost savings may lead to improved patient outcomes. Laprade identifies how to read an mri of an acl tear.
Potential pitfalls of mr in defining acl tears are partial volume artifact and reparative fibrosis following an acl injury bridging the residual acl stump and adjacent structures such as femoral notch the posterior cruciate ligament pcl or the synovial envelope covering the pcl. So on mr the primary signs of a tear are. This will help retain a near normal alignment of the acl and may lead to an acl appearing to be intact in the. In cases where a graft tear is poorly visualized any of the secondary signs of acl disruption such as pivot shift bone bruises or pcl buckling may also be utilized in the acl graft patient.
Johnson clin orthop 183. How to read an mri of an acl tear home how to read an mri of an acl tear in this video colorado knee surgeon dr. Acl tear may only involve one bundle. Martire jr levinsohn em.
Imaging signs of isolated posterolateral bundle tear are as follows. Discontinuity on t2 abnormal orientation or non visualisation. To describe 2 mri signs of partial acl tear involving the posterolateral bundle on conventional knee mri sequences specifically the gap and footprint signs. Contemporary mri of the knee.
Bonamo jj saperstein al. Diagnosis of partial anterior cruciate ligament acl tears is difficult on magnetic resonance imaging mri particularly the isolated tears of the posterolateral bundle. Mri clinics of n america. Fluid signal andor a gap between the medial aspect of the lateral femoral condyle and the lateral aspect of the mid acl can be seen on either axial or coronal mri images.
Only bone bruises can be a helpfull secondary sign.