MENISCAL AND LIGAMENTOUS INJURIES FOLLOWING ACUTE KNEE TRAUMA AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH AGE, GENDER AND BODY MASS INDEX

Abstract

Objective: The objective of current study was to determine the frequency of meniscal and ligamentous injuries following acute knee trauma and find its association with age, gender and body mass index.

Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital of Peshawar, Pakistan from January to June 2018. A total of 150 participants presented to orthopedic department with history of acute knee trauma due to motor vehicle accident were included in the study through consecutive sampling. Assessment of meniscal and ligamentous injuries was performed through physical examination tests and imaging studies. Questionnaire having questions regarding demographic information and knee injury was used to collect the data.  SPSS version 20 was used for data analysis.

Results: The mean age of participants was 29.5±6.7 years. Almost half (n=72, 48%) of the participants had meniscal and/or ligamentous injuries. Out of these 72, 38 (52.8%) had meniscal injuries, 27(37.5%) had ligamentous injuries and 7 (9.7%) had both ligamentous and meniscal injuries. Majority of patients who had meniscal and/or ligamentous injuries were of female gender (n= 43, 59.7%) and had age less than 30 years (n=39, 54.1%). Twelve (16.7%) underweight, 36 (50.0%) normal, 14 (19.4%) overweight and 10 (13.9%) obese patients had meniscal and/or ligamentous injuries. There was significant association of meniscal and/or ligamentous injuries with female gender (p-value 0.021) and age less than 30 years (p-value 0.039) while there was insignificant association with body mass index (p-value 0.091). 

Conclusion: The frequency of meniscal and ligamentous injuries is high among patients with acute knee trauma. Female are more prone to these injuries after knee trauma as compared to their counterpart male population. Moreover, young population is more at risk for these injuries.