Suprapatellar bursa - normal (MRI)

Case contributed by Brian Gilcrease-Garcia
Diagnosis not applicable

Presentation

Knee pain

Patient Data

Age: Adult
Gender: Female

Overall normal MRI of the knee.  Note the appearance of the suprapatellar bursa, which is completely collapsed in the absence of a knee effusion or bursitis.

There is an incidental soft tissue hemangioma or possibly ganglion in the subcutaneous fat medial and superficial to the medial femoral condyle.

Annotated image

Zoomed image depicting the non-distended suprapatellar bursa (red arrows), located between the suprapatellar fat pad (yellow asterisk) and the prefemoral fat pad (teal asterisk).

Case Discussion

The suprapatellar bursa does not get much attention unless it is distended from knee effusion or bursitis, or contains "loose body" osteochondral lesions. This example nicely shows normal location and appearance of the bursa.

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