WRIST ARTHROGRAPHY VERSUS ARTHROSCOPY - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF 150 CASES

One hundred fifty patients with suspected wrist ligamentous injuries w ere studied with both triple injection wrist arthrography and arthrosc opy. The diagnoses obtained by these two techniques were compared to d etermine the differences between these two modalities. All the patient s in this study had both the clinical diagnosis of ligamentous injurie s of the wrist and normal finding; on x-ray films. Intercarpal abnorma lities were found in 106 patients (71%) at wrist arthrography and in 1 36 patients (91%) at arthroscopy. There was only 42% agreement (63 pat ients) between the arthrographic and arthroscopic diagnoses. Eighty-se ven patients (58%) had alterations of their arthrographic diagnoses fo llowing arthroscopy. For patients with normal arthrographic findings ( 44 patients), 88% underwent arthroscopy because there was insufficient correlation between the physical examination findings and the arthros copic findings. Out of the 44 patients with normal arthrographic findi ngs, 35 patients (80% of the subgroup) had injuries found at arthrosco py. Over half of the patients had alterations in their arthrographic d iagnoses following arthroscopy. In a patient with suspected ligamentou s injury of the wrist, wrist arthroscopy may be the most efficient met hod in arriving at a definitive diagnosis.