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Chondral/Osteochondral Injury

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<v ->Now we have some other words that we use in our language

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and when we describe what we see on the MR,

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and two of those words are chondral injury

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and osteochondral injury, and they are different.

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Chondral injury means that the force applied to the surface

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of articular cartilage is dissipated

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in the articular cartilage

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and does not reach the subchondral bone.

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An osteochondral injury indicates that that same sort

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of force, perhaps greater magnitude,

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is resisted not only by the articular cartilage,

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but also, it reaches the subchondral bone.

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Okay, as shown here, that then is an osteochondral injury.

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Osteochondral injuries are easy to see, and why is that?

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Because with these injuries,

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there is a light bulb in the subchondral bone,

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okay?

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On the fluid-sensitive sequences.

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So as soon as you see a bright spot here,

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you're not dealing with a simple chondral injury,

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you're dealing with an osteochondral injury.

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So here, we have an osteochondral injury manifest

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as a chondral fracture,

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producing a chondral defect

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with an intact subchondral bone plate

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and subjacent bone contusion.

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And by the way,

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observe how sharp those edges are

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to a traumatic chondral defect.

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When we talk about a chondral injury,

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the light bulb is off

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because the force does not reach the subchondral bone.

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So when you think about it,

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we're terrific at picking up osteochondral injuries

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and we are poor at picking up chondral injuries

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unless you're dealing routinely with 3-tesla

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or or even 7-tesla magnets.

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Here shows that point, here's the initial study,

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following an injury read as negative.

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Nine months later, delamination at the tidemark, right?

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Bright signal, curvilinear signal.

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So the cartilage was injured,

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it's just that we didn't see it initially

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on the first MR examination.

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So my advice to you is when a group

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of orthopedic surgeon comes into your area,

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and I've learned they never come in by themselves,

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they come in as a group, overwhelming you with numbers.

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And when they hold up that particular image

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that you're glancing at on your computer,

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and they ask you, "What is happening here?"

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And you say, "Well, I see a bone contusion here."

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And they say, "Well, that's easy to see.

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Anybody could see that."

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What they wanna know is what's gonna happen

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to the articular cartilage.

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You better answer, "We can't be certain,"

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because it's hard to predict exactly what's gonna happen

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to the articular cartilage.

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They might not be happy with that answer,

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but that's the truth.

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Here, it looks good.

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11 months later,

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there is a chondral defect that has developed.

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Note that the contusion is almost completely resolved.

Report

Faculty

Donald Resnick, MD

Professor Emeritus, Department of Radiology

University of California, San Diego

Carlos H. Longo, MD

Head of Radiology

Hospital Beneficência Portuguesa de São Paulo

Abdalla Skaf, MD

Head of the Department of Diagnostic Imaging Hospital HCor / Medical director of ALTA diagnostics (DASA group)

HCOR / DASA / TELEIMAGEM

Rodrigo Aguiar, MD, PhD

Professor of Radiology

Federal University of Paraná - Brazil

Marcelo D’Abreu, MD

Head of Radiology

Hospital Mae de Deus

Tags

Musculoskeletal (MSK)

MSK

MRI

Knee