Upcoming Events
Log In
Pricing
Free Trial

Chondral/Osteochondral Injuries - Classification Part 1

HIDE
PrevNext

0:00

Now with that as background to anatomy, let's begin

0:03

to talk about injuries.

0:04

And we're going to talk about chondral

0:06

and osteochondral fractures of the tailored dome.

0:11

These are more common than fractures, similar fractures

0:14

of the tibial PlayOn.

0:16

They will, uh,

0:18

typically occur more frequently on the medial side, okay,

0:22

than on the lateral side or central portion.

0:26

And indeed on the medial side,

0:28

these are the two most common locations we see central

0:32

medial and postal medial.

0:34

On the lateral side, the classic places are anterolateral

0:39

or central lateral.

0:40

Okay? Those are the places

0:42

that we typically see the injuries.

0:46

When we look at the injuries, they tend to be larger

0:49

and deeper on the medial side

0:51

and probably relate to compression.

0:54

When we look at the lesions on the lateral side, they tend

0:57

to be smaller, they're more shallow,

1:00

and they may relate to sheer injury

1:03

and we'll get back to the pathogenesis a little bit later.

1:07

So these fractures typically relate to a single episode

1:12

of trauma, although occasionally on the medial side,

1:16

a stress injury can eventually produce a fracture in

1:20

that particular area.

1:22

And in most of these injuries,

1:24

there are associated ligamentous abnormalities.

1:28

Now, there's no single classification system to describe

1:32

chondral and osteochondral fractures of the Taylor Dome,

1:38

but the one that I think is most useful was put forth

1:42

by James Griffith from Hong Kong,

1:44

and I'm using a few of his slides here.

1:47

You can see in fact the various grades

1:50

that he suggested running from grade one,

1:53

which is a more minor finding to grade five.

1:57

And this relates to the status of the articular cartilage,

2:01

the subc chondral bone plate, and the subchondral bone,

2:04

and whether or not there is osteochondral separation

2:09

of the involved tissue.

2:10

Here you can get a general idea of the increasing severity

2:15

of the abnormality.

2:16

So let me show you a couple of examples.

2:19

This would be a grade one B lesion.

2:23

We can see here areas of marrow edema on both sides

2:27

of the joint and a cartilage fracture well illustrated here.

2:33

This would be a grade two B lesion.

2:36

Here we deal with subc chondral bone collapse

2:39

with osteochondral separation, the separation shown

2:44

by the black arrows.

2:49

Now what's interesting when we have these particular

2:53

injuries, we can end up with intraarticular bodies

2:57

with a chondral fracture.

2:58

The body is composed of cartilage alone

3:01

with an osteochondral fracture, both cartilage

3:04

and bone represent the constituents

3:07

of the intraarticular body.

3:10

Here we can see example of an osteochondral fracture

3:14

with slight separation of a body composed

3:18

of cartilage and subcon bone.

3:21

Now typically, as we've mentioned previously in this course,

3:24

these bodies may remain at their site of origin,

3:28

may become slightly displaced, as shown here,

3:32

become totally free

3:34

or loose, migrating around the joint

3:37

as they migrate around the joint.

3:39

The cartilage may grow nourished by synovial fluid

3:43

through the process of endochondral bone formation

3:47

and bone is created often in a layered fashion.

3:51

The bony aspect of the body,

3:53

however, generally undergoes necrosis when you look

3:57

for these, these bodies in any joint always look

4:01

for in the joint recesses because they tend to lodge

4:04

or extend into those recesses, and eventually they may lodge

4:09

and become fixed in the synovial membrane.

4:13

And at that point, they may change size by resorb.

4:18

Now, one of the interesting problems,

4:21

diagnostic problems we have about the ankle is the

4:24

differentiation of intraarticular bodies from ossicles.

4:29

I'm showing you at the top scle.

4:32

These are fragments of bone that can be located

4:35

beneath the medial maus as shown here,

4:39

or in fact beneath the lateral mala.

4:42

And although, although there are books that suggest

4:45

that normal variations may have this appearance much more

4:50

frequently, you're looking at post-traumatic

4:52

separated pieces of bone that have not fused

4:56

with the parent bone.

4:57

So those, if you put an arthroscope in the joint,

5:00

would not be visible.

5:02

Compare that to intraarticular bodies. Here's an example.

5:06

This one very near the medial ligament is complex.

5:12

So these are true intraarticular bodies,

5:15

but differentiating ossicles typically related for

5:19

to fractures from intraarticular bodies, sometimes,

5:23

particularly in the ankle, can be difficult.

5:27

Well, let's look at an illustrative case here.

5:30

This is a young man with pain and swelling about one

5:34

or two weeks after an injury.

5:36

The black arrow are showing you evidence

5:38

of an osteochondral injury in the form of an osteochondral

5:44

fracture, which has led to a displaced intraarticular body,

5:49

composed obviously of cartilage and bone.

5:52

Let me go ahead and displace it.

5:54

And now I want you to look at this. This is on

5:56

The lateral aspect of the Taylor Dome, often related

6:00

to sheer injuries.

6:01

And because of that, it's not unusual that

6:05

that body is actually upside down,

6:08

and you have to recognize that

6:10

because generally surgery would be required

6:13

to rotate this body and perhaps fix it back in place.

6:18

Here's another example, just to show you the same point,

6:21

particularly with fractures of the lateral Taylor Dome.

6:26

If they displace, if they become loose

6:28

or free, they may invert

6:31

and you should look for that,

6:33

be it on conventional radiographs, uh, CT or Mr.

6:38

Images.

Report

Faculty

Donald Resnick, MD

Professor Emeritus, Department of Radiology

University of California, San Diego

Christine B. Chung, MD

Professor of Radiology, Executive Vice Chair, and Director of UCSD MSK Imaging Research Lab

UC San Diego

Karen Y. Cheng, MD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiology

University of California, San Diego

Tags

Musculoskeletal (MSK)

MRI

Foot & Ankle