The Clinical Utility and Diagnostic Performance of MRI for Identification and Classification of Knee

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a common clinical tool used to diagnose andmonitor the progression and/or healing of osteochondritis dissecans of the knee. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the literature relative to the following questions: (1) Is MRI a valid, sensitive, specific, accurate, and reliable imaging modality to identify knee osteochondritis dissecans compared with arthroscopy? (2) Is MRI a sensitive tool that can be utilized to characterize lesion severity and stability of osteochondritis dissecans fragments in the knee? Methods: A systematic search was performed in December 2010 with use of PubMed MEDLINE (from 1966), CINAH