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Discoid Meniscus, Wrisberg Variant

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In the last vignette, we looked

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at a lateral discoid meniscus.

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By the way, a vast, vast, vast majority

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of meniscal abnormalities, like

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the discoid meniscal abnormality,

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happen on the lateral side.

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In fact, if you see a lateral, or if you see a

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discoid meniscus on the medial side, question

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yourself if it's actually a discoid meniscus.

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It can happen.

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I've seen a few cases.

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But the vast majority

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happen on the lateral side.

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That's just a little caveat for you guys.

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So here's another case of a discoid meniscus.

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With a slight variation, and

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let me talk to you about that.

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Here is a sagittal T1.

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Already we can tell that there's something

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wrong with this lateral meniscus.

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It's very, very thick.

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It has abnormal globular signal, but it

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doesn't reach the articular surface, so I

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don't think it's actually torn within the body.

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And it's sort of bunched up over here,

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and there's a big gap between the

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capsule, posteriorly, and, uh, posterior.

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very posterior margin of your lateral meniscus.

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So what's going on?

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So I can already tell you that there's been

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an injury or there's been separation of

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your meniscal capsule ligament posteriorly.

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And this is called the Risberg

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variant of discoid meniscus.

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To get a better idea of its anatomy and what

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it looks like on the axial plane, we revert

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back to our thin slices, which in my case are

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these DES sequences that show this

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fluid gap, and let's reconstruct this image

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through the meniscus and see what it looks like.

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I'm going to go back to one-on-one,

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bring down my sagittal DES,

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triangle, reconstruct, and here we go.

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I'm going to zoom in just so you guys can

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appreciate the abnormality a little better.

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So again, what I'm looking at is,

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let's find lateral and medial.

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It's very easy to do.

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We know the lateral side is here, because

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here's the fibula, and here's our abnormal

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meniscus, which is right over here.

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Let's orient our plane, so it

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goes right through that area.

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Let's raise it up,

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so we know we're right through that plane,

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and here, we're actually

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right through that plane.

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So let's go and zoom back out a

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little bit on this, and then turn it.

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So where is the meniscus, right?

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So it has to be over here.

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Here's the meniscus.

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And why does that meniscus look so funky?

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So let me first show you

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where I think the meniscus is.

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This is the root, the

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anterior root of the meniscus.

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This is part of the anterior horn.

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It takes a funny turn over

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here because it's bunched up.

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It's bunched up.

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This part of the meniscus has been

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shifted anteriorly because there's no

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attachment here to the posterior capsule.

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All this fluid is this fluid gap

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that we're seeing back here, okay?

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That's the fluid gap we're

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seeing right over here.

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So let me, if I can, zoom this up

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a little more and actually draw

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what I think the meniscus is doing.

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Here is the outline of what

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I think the meniscus is.

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Okay, that's what the meniscus looks

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like currently because you are missing

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attachment to the posterior capsule.

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This fluid-filled area is the space

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that has been left by this meniscus

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that has been translocated anteriorly.

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What should that meniscus have looked like?

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So it should have looked like if it

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was just a discoid meniscus, it should

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have looked something like this.

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It would still be a discoid meniscus, right?

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But now you've lost the attachments.

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That's why this portion of your discoid

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meniscus has translocated to this position.

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So this is called a Risberg variant.

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And this is more problematic because every

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time the patient flexes or extends his

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knee, the discoid, this bunched-up part

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of the meniscus keeps moving back and

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forth, back and forth, back and forth.

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So that can cause problems of locking.

Report

Faculty

Mahesh Thapa, MD, MEd, FAAP

Division Chief of Musculoskeletal Imaging, and Director of Diagnostic Imaging Professor

Seattle Children's & University of Washington

Tags

Pediatrics

Musculoskeletal (MSK)

MRI

Idiopathic

Congenital

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