The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-12-08

INJURY or KNEE CARTILAGE
 Loose cartilage lsl the knee Joint, painful locking of knee joint, weak ness following c strain or spEain Of the knee, these are generally one and the sasno thing, namely, injury, tear or dislccation Of the geEailuner cartilage, which is Q sort of cushion or bearing between tho head of the geInur or thieii bone and the joint surface os the tibiA or larger leg bone.
 common cause of the injury is . blow on the outer side Of the knee. Another common cause ig move- rnent in which tho sernuT cg thigh is fixed and the leg is rotated. Sometimes 50 sllght Q cause of such torsion as turning over in bed in" jures the cartilage.
 m some cases of injury the car. tilago dAslocated. In some eases thOre iB only 6 tear Of . liganlent. m most cases both tear or disloca- ton oe the cartilage and tear Of Q ligament occur. Tn c few cases there iS . chip or slice fracture of the cartilage.
 Cartilage torn or fractured cane not possibly heal by formation of new cartilage, as bone heals by cal. Jus thew bone formatior), But torn or fractured cartilage does heal oil right in about one-thiFd of the cases by formation of fibrous (sc0r) tiksue, and the knee gives little or no trouble afterwayd. n more than halS the cases In q series studied by DTS. 0ravener and Mac- Elroy e. A. M. A. Nov. i6 4i) complete recovery followed Axation Of the knee by plaster cast for slx weeks. Before the cast iB applied the tear, or fracture or dislocation of the cartilage must Do reduced by manipulation of the knee with the patient completely anesthetised.
 Nitrous oxide Laughing gas) and oxygen ls Ideal for this pur. pose.
 Tn the last two weeks of fxatlon by the cast the great thigh mus cle (quadriceps) Is regularly exers ciged to prevent wasting and weak ening, and exercises are gradually increased after reFnovel of the cast
 No the patient is either cured oF not cured. If not cured, he or che will probably have recurring attacks of dislocatlon Of the cartilage, exc tremeiy painful, with or without locking of the knee. If two such at- tacks occur the only chance of cure is operation,
 Locking of the knee, despite com- mon belief, occurs in only one case out of three.
 The age of 20 years seems to be the average age in most eases Of lHi- jury os knee cartilage. Most pR- uents are somewhat overweight, undermuscled, widespelvised. Drs Cravener and MacElroy found that injuries of the seInilunar cartilage occurred In nearly 90 percent of the women students h . popular cole lege of physical education,
 Most common symptoms ere knee pain, instability, swelling pain on rotation of bent knee, tend. erness over Joint, limitation of mo. ton in knee, pain on sldewlse mos ton of knee, presence of . palpAhle mass, whether movable or not.
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