Interactive Transcript
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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.