We report our experience with 6 patients who had total knee replacements with lateral-sided knee pain, referred for ultrasound (US) assessment and US-guided injection. All cases showed an osteophyte within the popliteus sulcus of the lateral femoral condyle impinging on the adjacent tendon. Five of 6 patients reported improvement of symptoms immediately after US-guided injection of an anesthetic and a steroid. Ultrasound has a unique role in the imaging of knee replacements because of its real-time capabilities and absence of artifacts at the popliteus tendon origin.
This Institutional Review Board-approved pilot study attempted to detect the correlation between ultrasound shear wave elastographic measures and tendon loads. Five male fresh-frozen cadaveric Achilles tendons were loaded in 10-N increments from 0 to 60 N. Shear wave velocity measurements within each Achilles tendon were obtained at each load in longitudinal and transverse orientations. Shear wave velocity measurements were correlated with tendon tension on both longitudinal and transverse plane imaging and showed moderate and strong positive correlation coefficients, respectively. Of note, limitations of the clinically available shear wave elastographic technology for measuring high velocities exist.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.