Early accurate diagnosis of a knee injury can be challenging. Diagnosis of the knee is difficult if based on history and examination alone. An artrography can be used to aid in the diagnosis of the knee injury. The main disadvantage of this procedure is the need for an injection and the patient exposure to ionizing radiation.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging was first used in 1973. it was designed to be used to determine benign and malignant tumors and has been adapted to many fields. The main advantage to has fore the knee evaluation is it is relatively fast and painless. the picture is highly detailed so that tearing in soft tissue can be shown with a high degree of accuracy. Studies have shown that MRI to be highly accurate in the diagnosis of tears of the menisci and ACL. the diagnostic accuracy of MRI as confermed by the arthrscopic findings are (1) medial meniscus, 93.1% (2) lateral meniscus, 96.6% and (3) ACL, 96.6%.