Abstract
Bone bruises on MR imagings of 35 patients with ACL injury were evaluated, and were correlated with subsequent arthroscopic and clinical findings.
32 patients (91.2%) had bone bruises on MR imagings. All of the MR imagings taken within 3 months from ACL injury had bone bruises and 50% of the imagings taken 3 to 4 months after injury had bone bruises, whereas none of the imagings taken longer than 4 months after injury had bone bruises. In most cases, the lesion was located at the middle site of the lateral femoral condyle and the posterior site of the lateral tibial plateau. There was no correlation between the presence of bone bruises and meniscal tears, and no correlation between the presence of bone bruises and articular cartilage lesions. There were bone bruises at the medial femoral condyle due to MCL detachment from the condyle. Bone bruise evaluation is useful in diagnosis of ACL injury and/or MCL detachment.
