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Displaced Meniscal Tears

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There are three classic patterns

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of displaced meniscal tear.

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A bucket handle tear, which is a uh, a displacement

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of a longitudinal vertical tear.

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A flap tear, which is a displaced horizontal tear

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and a radio tear displaced.

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We call that a parrot be tear.

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I show you here some examples of them.

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This is the bucket handle tear with a flap

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of tissue present within the central aspect of the knee.

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Here is a horizontal tear with a flap extending down,

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eroding the peripheral margin of the tibia.

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And here is a bar the tear, we've already discussed that.

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So let's talk about bucket handle tears.

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Now in general, what we're dealing

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with are longitudinal vertical tears occurring in the

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peripheral portion of the meniscus.

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We call these bucket handle tears,

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although I'm not sure exactly why

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because typically the peripheral aspect is thinner than

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the central aspect.

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Yet the peripheral aspect is the bucket

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and this is the central portion of the bucket handle.

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Tear the handle of the bucket, handle tear.

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There are three diagnostic criteria that we have

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for a classic bucket handle tear

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numbering them here for you.

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Number one, peripheral rim of meniscal tissue.

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Number two, centrally displaced meniscal tissue.

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And number three, a connection between the peripheral

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and central portions, both anteriorly and posteriorly.

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So here I show you with coronal images, the take off

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of the bucket handle tear.

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Here we follow it continuously, centrally

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and we can see in fact now it connects

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to the posterior horn.

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All three criteria have been met.

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This is a bucket handle tear.

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We all also recognize these hairs

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because we end up with tissue flaps

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of the meniscus located centrally for a bucket handle pair

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of the medial meniscus, the so-called double PCL sign

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and what I call the pseudo torn ACL sign

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for a bucking handle pair of the lateral meniscus.

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This looks like a torn ACL,

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although the ACL is located behind it and is intact.

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Now there is a pattern that I don't think is well recognized

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in the radiology literature

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that is called the consular entrapment pattern.

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So I'm gonna show you what this relates to.

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This relates to a bucket handle tear

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with progressive inversion of the central meniscal tissue.

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So it ends up upside down. Okay, located centrally.

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And if this occurs, there is kinking

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between the peripheral aspect

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and the central portion of the meniscus.

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And further that inner margin of the bucket handle tear may

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Work its way up along the inner aspect

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of the ipsilateral femoral condyle ENT trapping

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that femoral condyle.

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Now this is an interesting type

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and it is probably fairly common.

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And when you have that, particularly when you have kinking

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owing to the inversion of the central part, you will see

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what has been called AV sign like this, okay?

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Right at those areas of distortion connecting the peripheral

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and central portion, I've seen this most commonly involving

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bucket handle pairs of the medial mucus

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and located anteriorly as shown here.

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So I'm showing you two cases here of the V sign.

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A very important sign.

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Both of these involving the anterior aspect

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of a bucket handle, tear of the medial meniscus.

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Now in addition,

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if the bucket handle tear is not treated immediately,

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you can end up with brakes in the handles

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or buckets that are leaking.

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So here would be a broken handle

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and this would be a peripheral rim failure,

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A leaking bucket, just to show you an example of

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that here in fact is a bucket handle pair

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with further tearing of the peripheral portion.

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We're dealing with a leaking bucket handle tear

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with regard to the repair.

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Uh, repairing these, there are certain criteria

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that generally indicate these

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pairs can be repaired rather than resected.

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A peripheral segment that is less than four millimeters

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tear length equal two or greater than 10 millimeters,

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and minimal damage to the central or peripheral segment.

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And here's a case where in fact this is a nice, uh, tear.

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It's occurring actually at the meniscal capsular junction

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and, uh, taken from the literature, this is one

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that could be repaired.

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Finally, to complete our story, be aware

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of the Hemi bucket handle tear typically associated

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with longitudinal horizontal tears involving the meniscus.

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Generally of the inner margin, you may end up with a flap

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of meniscal tissue essentially,

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and the peripheral part doesn't look too bad there.

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These are two cases showing you minor irregularity.

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So some of the meniscus has displaced essentially

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and some remains intact, known as a hemi bucket there.

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And then also the flip meniscus where the point

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of failure is not within the meniscus

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but is at the meniscal capsular junction.

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You see this most commonly on the lateral side in the region

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of the posterior horn of the lateral meniscus.

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And indeed this is an example,

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beautiful picture from Mike Sta.

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And this is what it might look like on the MR images.

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Meniscal capsular

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Injuries are uncommon, all right?

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They are hard to diagnose, typically they don't occur alone.

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They're associated with other abnormalities

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including ligament failure and discoid meniscus.

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More common on the medial side.

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Okay, difficult MR diagnosis.

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And if they are long, they may require a repair

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with multiple sutures.

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I show you a discoid meniscus with separation here.

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Meniscal capsular separation.

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This is an ACL tear, a ramp like lesion, a failure adjacent

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to the posterior horn,

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and a similar one here with a partial separation.

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Note that very important clue, the edema posterior aspect

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of the medial tibial plateau.

Report

Faculty

Donald Resnick, MD

Professor Emeritus, Department of Radiology

University of California, San Diego

Mini N. Pathria, MD, FRCP(C)

Division Chief, Musculoskeletal Imaging

University of California San Diego

Eric Y. Chang, MD

Adjunct Professor, Radiology

University of California, San Diego

Brady K. Huang, MD

Clinical Professor of Radiology

UC San Diego Medical Center

Tags

Musculoskeletal (MSK)

MRI

Knee