Abstract
We reported the usefulness of the Rosenberg's Method to detect the osteoarthrosis of the knee in an early stage in which the narrowing of the joint space could not be detected by the non-weight bearing roentgenogram. The joint space of the medial and lateral compartment were measured in 53 patients (69 knees) that were diagnosed as suffering from osteoarthritis of the knee. The average age of the group was 63.7 years old and consisted of 12 males and 41 females.
Of the 69 knees (53 patients) in the OA that in the early stage 45 knees were diagnosed as the OA by the extension weight-bearing anteroposterior roentogenogram and the further 10 knees were recognized to have the OA by the Rosenberg's Method. From comparing these joint spaces, the former was the average of 2.6mm in the medial compartment of 39 knees and 2.0mm in the lateral compartment of 6 knees, indicating narrowing of the joint space, the latter was the average of 2.2mm in the medial compartment of 47 knees and 1.6mm in the lateral compartment of 8 knees, revealing more narrowing of the joint space.
From this observation it could be said that RM is a superior method than weight bearing roentgenogram to diagnose the OA. It seem that the position of 45 degrees knee-flexion gives the highest contact pressure in daily life in spite of the contact areabeing the smallest. Due to this reason the cartilage will easily give rise to the OA in the early stage.
