Knee joint effusion

Case contributed by Bruno Di Muzio
Diagnosis certain

Presentation

Unspecified trauma.

Patient Data

Gender: Female

Left knee X-ray

x-ray

Left knee radiographs: suprapatelar knee joint effusion. No fracture or bone lesion identified.

Left knee X-ray

Annotated image

Joint effusion delineated. 

Case Discussion

Knee joint effusions are only reliably seen on lateral projections. A knee joint effusion appears as well-defined rounded homogeneous soft tissue density within the suprapatellar recess on a lateral radiograph. 

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