Is Your Knee Pain Diagnosis Correct?

Diagnosis of knee injuries is, in my opinion, too dependant on many large machines and invasive techniques. Your knee hurts so you visit the orthopedist, here he uses his tools to figure out why your knee hurts. While some of these tools are very impressive indeed, are they accurate?

Once X-rays rule out problems with bones, a MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is brought in because of its ability to reveal soft tissue damage, but problems with the knee, especially the cartilage, can still be very evasive and hard to pinpoint. Studies have shown that the advanced technologies commonly used to diagnosis injuries are grievously insufficient to do the job.

In one study conducted by Dr. J.A. Lawrance of Oxford, England, MRIs had a success rate of only 11% in diagnosing partial Anterior Cruciate Ligament tears. In yet another study, focusing on the knee, doctors compared the findings of standard x-ray tests and physical examinations on 210 people—all of whom were self-described as pain free at the time of the testing. Although none of the participants exhibited any pain or other symptoms of pathology, and considered themselves completely healthy in regard to their knees, the test results yielded dramatic evidence of physical problems and abnormalities, including an incidence rate of 80% or better for arthritis, patellofemoral crepitus (grinding) in 94% of the women, high percentages of asymmetry and hypermobility, and a dozen other problems to varying degrees. As the authors of the study noted: “Because patellofemoral crepitus is so common in both symptomatic and asymptomatic volunteers, the importance of this finding must be reevaluated as a surgical indication.”

The conclusion is obvious: by offering “objective” evidence and a technology based rationale to over-eager surgeons, MRIs, X-rays and other advanced diagnostic techniques contribute greatly to promoting cases of unnecessary or even ill-advised surgery. The end result is more problems for the recipients of these surgeries.

Generally speaking, the most efficient and safe method for diagnosing a knee injury is a simple manual examination, coupled with extensive questioning of the patient to determine exactly what happened and where it hurts.