THE POPLITEAL BURSA (BAKERS CYST) - AN ARTHROSCOPIC PERSPECTIVE AND THE EPIDEMIOLOGY

The purpose of this study was to establish the incidence of the anatom ic structure, the popliteal bursa, in patients undergoing arthroscopy and to determine the relationship to associated clinical and pathologi cal factors. Diagnostic arthroscopy was used to identify the presence of the popliteal bursa in 187 consecutive patients (195 knees). Thirty -seven percent of knees had popliteal bursa identified by the communic ation with the posterior medial compartment. The cause of the poplitea l bursa was not established by this study. This study refuted the caus es proposed by others. The existing erroneous conclusions concerning t he cause of the popliteal bursa were probably attributable to the fail ure to recognize the common continuity of the bursa and the knee joint . When the popliteal bursa is present (37%), it becomes symptomatic by responding to the intraarticular disease because of its continuity wi th the knee joint.