Correlation Between Radiographically Diagnosed Osteophytes And Arthroscopy Detected Cartilage Lesion In The Knees Of Osteoarthritis Patients

Objective—To assess the correlation between the presence of radiographically diagnosed osteophytes and arthroscopy detected cartilage lesion in the knees of osteoarthritis patients.Method—A total of 38 knees in 34 patients with knee OA was studied. The length of marginal osteophytes that appeared in radiogram was measured. A special scale method called the "spur index" was devised for the study to determine a corrected measurement of the osteophyte length. Arthroscopic cartilage lesions were graded by Outerbridge's score system. The correlation between articular cartilage lesions and osteophytes formation was evaluated by Spearman correlation and Kruskal-Wallis H test.Result—No correlation between the osteophytes of patellofemoral and lateral tibiofemoral compartments and cartilage lesions was found. In medial tibiofemoral compartment the osteophytes' length correlates positively with the severity of cartilage lesion (P<0.05). The osteophytes at medial femur and medial tibia increased in length with increasing of cartilage lesion grade in medial tibiofemoral compartment (p<0.05).Conclusion—In medial tibiofemoral compartment, the cartilage lesion grade increases with the increasing of osteophytes' size.