[The accuracy of the clinical diagnosis of meniscal tears with or without associated anterior cruciate ligament tears].

OBJECTIVES

Meniscal tears and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears commonly coexist in sports injuries. The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of ACL deficiency on our ability to diagnose meniscal tears.

METHODS

The study included patients with a clinical diagnosis of medial meniscal tears with (group A; 26 patients; 22 males, 4 females; mean age 26.6 years; range 18 to 67 years) or without (group B; 17 males; mean age 28.2 years; range 19 to 49 years) associated ACL tears. Patients with lesions other than meniscal or ACL tears were excluded. Clinical evaluations were made with the use of medial joint line tenderness, McMurray, and hyperextension tests. Preoperative diagnoses were compared with arthroscopic results and the accuracy of the tests used were calculated. The two patient groups were also compared with regard to the Lysholm scale parameters and total Lysholm scores. Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney U-test were used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS

Medial joint line tenderness was present in 82% in group A, and 73% in group B. McMurray test was positive in 82% in group A, and 62% in group B; hyperextension test was positive in 73% in group A, and 61% in group B. The total Lysholm scores were significantly different, being 69 in group A, and 61 in group B (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that the accuracy of a clinical diagnosis of a meniscal tear is decreased by the presence of an ACL tear. The coexistence of meniscal and ACL tears requires a more careful clinical evaluation and a more frequent need for magnetic resonance imaging.