Case 07 - 20 year old male with a knee injury while playing football
20 year old football player with acute onset of lateral right knee pain during a game.
- There is a focal area of cartilage loss of the lateral femoral condyle, best seen on the sagittal PD images. It is important to note that the cartilage loss is full thickness, located in the middle third of the condyle, and measures approximately 7-mm.
- It is also important to note the presence of focal edema of the underlying subchondral bone.
- Given the provided clinical history of acute knee injury, these findings are consistent with an acute chondral injury.
- We reserve the term "osteochondral defect" for lesions that contain both bone and cartilage, such as in osteochondritis dissecans.
- The acute margins of the defect and subjacent bone edema are consistent with this being an acute injury.
- Always look for chondral bodies in the joint if a piece of cartilage is "missing". Did you find this one?.
- This patient also has a lateral meniscal tear.
Accession: CL0036
Study description: MR JOINT LOWER KNEE-RT
Case discussion: