Reliability of common knee injection sites with low-volume injections

J Arthroplasty. 2004 Oct;19(7):858-61. doi: 10.1016/j.arth.2004.02.042.

Abstract

This study's purpose was to evaluate the reliability of knee injection sites with low-volume (2-3 cc) injection typical of viscosupplementation. This was a prospective study of 131 knees randomly assigned to 3 injection groups before to knee arthroscopy: SM-superomedial, superolateral, and lateral joint line (LJL). Needles were inserted to the hub, and aspiration was attempted before injection with 3 cc diluted methylene blue (MB). Injections then were graded at the time of arthroscopy as good, fair, or poor, depending on the intra-articular staining of MB. We conclude that a lateral joint line injection site may not be reliable for routine injections of low volumes into knees, because it results in good intra- articular delivery less than half of the time, with a high incidence of soft-tissue infiltration.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Arthroscopy*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Injections, Intra-Articular / standards*
  • Knee Joint*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Prospective Studies
  • Statistics, Nonparametric