The assessment of acute knee injuries by Senior House Officers in the Accident and Emergency Department

This study in a large inner city Accident & Emergency (A&E) department investigated the awareness of new Senior House Officers (SHO's) of the major symptoms and signs of significant trauma to the knee. They were able to identify a knee effusion clinically but were unable to differentiate a haemarthrosis from a reactive effusion. An acute haemarthrosis is suggestive of significant damage such as fracture, cruciate ligament rupture, major meniscal tear, synovial tear or patella dislocation (Maffulli N, Binfield PM, King JB, Good CJ. J Bone Joint Surg [Br] 1993;75(6):945-949 [1]; Noyes FR, Basset RW, Grood ES, Butler DL, J Bone Joint Surg [Am] 1980;62-A:687-695 [2]; Jain AS, Swanson AJG, Murdoch G. Injury 1983;15:178-181. [3]). In many cases a haemarthrosis may be the only abnormality demonstrable in the acute setting (Dehaven KE. Am J Sports Med 1980;8:9-14 [4]; Visuri T, Koskenvuo M, Dahistrom S. Milit Med 1993;158(6):378-381 [5]). If this diagnosis is missed then patients may be inappropriately sent home without suitable treatment and follow up. Greater emphasis should be placed on the differentiation between reactive effusion and haemarthrosis in the knee during the teaching of orthopaedics both at medical school and also on arrival at the A&E department. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.