A hospital based cross sectional study on synovial fluid analysis among patients with different types of knee joint disorders at a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Patients presenting with knee joint disorders are subjected to variety of investigations which are often inconclusive. Instead if they are subjected for synovial fluid analysis, they will be benefited. The objective of the study was to study synovial fluid analysis among patients with different types of knee joint disorders at a tertiary care hospital.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A hospital based cross sectional study was carried out among 30 patients attending the outpatient Department of Orthopedics and suffering from knee joint pain of either left or right or both the sides. Present study was carried out over a period of two years from January 2011 to December 2012 at Department of Orthopedics, Global Hospitals, Secunderabad. All patients were examined in detail and subjected to all necessary investigations.<strong></strong></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Males were more than females. The most common joint disease in the study population was tubercular synovitis in 20% of the cases. The most common condition among males was osteoarthritis while there was no such case in females. Rheumatoid arthritis was most common in females while there was no such case in males. Polymorphs were seen in all cases except osteoarthritis and villonodular synovitis. On biochemical analysis of synovial fluid it was found that gouty arthritis did not have proteins. Proteins were minimum in the synovial fluid in case of osteoarthritis while maximum range was found in cases of tubercular arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Synovial fluid analysis is very important to understand the etiopathogenesis of knee joint diseases. Our study showed that synovial fluid of the knee joint analysis was very informative in the diagnosis and proper management of the patients presenting with knee joint disorders.</p>