Comparison of the diagnostic efficacy of arthroscopy and magnetic resonance on acute injury of the lateral ankle liga-ment complex

Abstract

Objective To compare the diagnostic consistency and efficacy of arthroscopy and MRI on the severity of acute lateral ligament complex (LLC) injury, and to find an effective method to diagnose acute LLC injury accurately in early stage. Methods Data of 37 patients (27 males, 10 females), with acute lateral ligament complex injury who were treated from February 2015 to December 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. The average age was 28.6±6.2 years (range, 18-42 years) and duration from injury to operation was 4.6±3.3 days (range, 0.3-8 days). The results of MRI and ankle arthroscopy for detecting LLC injury were compared, and the consistency between the two examination results was analyzed. Results Different consistencies were found between the two examination methods according to different parts of LCC injuries. The consistency of injuries (partial tear,complete tear) at the starting point of anterior talofibular ligament and complete tear at the starting point of calcaneofibularliga-ment was ordinary (kappa=0.641, 0.624, 0.680), while the consistency of damage in other parts of LLC was poor (kappa< 0.4). Compared with arthroscopy, MRI has a diagnostic accuracy of 62% (23/37) for partial tear of anterior talofibular ligament, and 62% (23/37) for complete tear. And that of the calcaneofibularligament complete tear was 78% (29/37). Conclusion MRI had low capability in detecting the severity of acute LLC injury accurately and the diagnosing efficacy was insufficient, while ar-throscopic exploration had a high diagnostic value for acute ankle joint injuries. Key words: Lateral ligament, ankle; Arthroscopy; Magnetic resonance imaging