Prevalence of Knee Pain Pathologies Diagnosed By Musculoskeletal Ultrasound In Nepal Police Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: One of the most frequent cause of orthopedic consultancy in Nepal Police Hospital is acute and chronic knee pain. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate how musculoskeletal ultrasonography aids in the low-cost identification of knee diseases and using ultrasound to compare with the contra lateral knee can be quite beneficial when developing a treatment plan.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on 260 patients with clinically confirmed knee pain. All patients were examined by using Sonasite ultrasound machine with linear probe (7-11MHz). The ultrasound examination of the knee started with examination of anterior aspect, followed by medial aspect, lateral aspect in supine position and then in prone position for examination of posterior aspects. The data were collected, tabulated and statistically analyzed using SPSS11.1. Categorical variables were presented in number and percentage, and continuous variables were presented as mean ± SD.

Results: In our study, among the 260 cases there were 164 male patients (63.07%) and 96 females (36.93%) with their age ranged between 25-55 years with the mean age of 40 years. Among 260 cases, 103 patients (39.61%) with knee pain had normal finding and 157 patients (60.39%) had knee pathologies. We found joint effusion (8.91%), quadriceps tendinopathy (3.82%), patellar tendinopathy (1.91%), medial meniscal tear (11.46%), lateral meniscal tear (4.45%), synovial hyperplasia (5.73%), medial collateral ligament tear (10.82%), lateral collateral ligament tear (7%), baker,s cyst(2.54%) and osteophytes(43.31%).

Conclusions: An efficient imaging technique that may be used as a screening tool for individuals experiencing knee pain is musculoskeletal ultrasound.