Prospective Level I diagnostic study of 56 knee arthroscopy patients that used a standardized 1-cm inferolateral portal as an arthrotomy model to define the saline injection volumes and needle locations needed to reliably detect traumatic knee joint penetration with the saline load test.
When evaluating a periarticular knee wound for possible joint penetration, inject at least 155 mL of saline via an inferomedial approach to rule out a small inferolateral arthrotomy at 95% sensitivity — stopping at 50 mL misses more than half of true arthrotomies and risks undertreating a joint that needs operative irrigation and débridement.
Prospective Level I diagnostic study of 56 knee arthroscopy patients that used a standardized 1-cm inferolateral portal as an arthrotomy model to define the saline injection volumes and needle locations needed to reliably detect traumatic knee joint penetration with the saline load test.
When evaluating a periarticular knee wound for possible joint penetration, inject at least 155 mL of saline via an inferomedial approach to rule out a small inferolateral arthrotomy at 95% sensitivity — stopping at 50 mL misses more than half of true arthrotomies and risks undertreating a joint that needs operative irrigation and débridement.