US OF THE KNEE: SCANNING TECHNIQUES, PITFALLS WITH CORRELATION TO COMMON PATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS.

Background: Among the most frequent causes of medical attention in the outpatient environment is knee pain or another knee condition. The capacity to guide percutaneous procedures and the fact that ultrasound may be performed anywhere, at any time, for a low price, and with excellent spatial resolution and image quality are all significant advantages of ultrasound. The patient may interact with the US machine in real time, allowing for quick clinical correlation and the opportunity and contrast the affected knee to the unaffected one. Structured assessment of the tendons, ligaments, joint space, osseous structures, peripheral nerves and vasculature, and the knee joint itself is possible by dividing the knee into anterior, medial, lateral, and posterior compartments. Aim of the Work: to assess US's capacity to characterise normal Knee anatomy, to explain US methodologies for thorough examination of the Knee, and to detect US manifestation of frequent pathologic diseases, as well as typical pitfalls/mimics of illness. Patients and Methods: Thirty people experiencing severe knee pain participated in this trial (less than three months duration). The orthopaedic outpatient clinic at Ain Shams University Hospitals and the ultrasonographic Imaging division of the Department of Radiology at Ain Shams University Hospitals collaborated on this work. Results: Regarding the demographic characteristics in the studied patients, it was found that Patients' ages varied widely, from eighteen to 70. with mean ±SD was 42.75± 13.1 years and median was 43.5 years. 18 (60%) patients were males and 12 (40%) of them were females with male to female ratio was 1.5:1. Regarding meniscal degeneration among the studied group, we found that the posterior horn is one of the most common areas for degenerative meniscus. Posterior horn medial meniscus degeneration was found in more than half (53.3%) cases while bone tenderness was found in 43 (95.6%) cases while the. Posterior horn lateral meniscus degeneration was found in eight (26.7%) cases. Conclusion: Ultrasound can help rule out potential causes of knee pain during the first stages of diagnosis. Joint effusion, tears to the posterior horn medial meniscus and the posterior horn lateral meniscus, bursitis of the anserinus, osteoarthritic alterations, cysts of the popliteal artery and duct, and tendinitis of the patellar tendon were the most common abnormalities detected by ultrasound. To verify our findings and assess US's diagnostic accuracy in knee pathology, more investigations are required with bigger sample sizes and longer follow-up.