Laurie's Blogs.

It was years, no decades, ago that I learned about the posteromedial joint line sulcus.  I had attended a lecture by a local veterinary surgeon.  She discussed this area of the stifle joint as being a good landmark to detect subtle joint swelling at the stifle – with a correlation to cruciate disease.  Since then I’ve looked for that landmark whenever I assess a dog rear limbs.

So, here’s a fun little study that examined that particular location, pain on palpation, and the correlation to meniscal tears.  The abstract in and of itself sums up the information.

McDonald DJ, Nakahara N, Gal A, Mitchell RAS. Medial joint line tenderness is an indicator for meniscal injuries in dogs. Vet Rec. 2024 Nov 19:e4841. 

Abstract

Background: Medial meniscal injury is an important aspect of cranial cruciate ligament disease in dogs. This study examines whether caudomedial joint line palpation of the stifle is correlated with medial meniscal injury in canine stifles with concurrent cranial cruciate ligament disease.

Methods: A total of 91 dogs (97 stifles) presenting with cranial cruciate ligament disease were assessed by palpation of the caudomedial joint line of the affected stifle by a single surgeon. Surgery was then performed to assess for injury to the medial meniscus. The odds of dogs with pain on palpation having a medial meniscal tear were then calculated, with the significance level set at p-value of 0.05.

Results: Dogs showing pain on caudomedial joint palpation had 34.5 times (95% confidence interval 9.7‒125) greater odds of having a medial meniscal tear. Pain on caudomedial joint line palpation had a sensitivity of 0.86, specificity of 0.85, positive predictive value of 0.94, negative predictive value of 0.70 and accuracy of 0.86 for identifying dogs with a medial meniscal tear.

Limitations: The amount of pressure placed on the caudomedial joint line was not assessed and a control group was not included.

Conclusion: Medial joint line tenderness has a significant relationship with medial meniscal tear in dogs with cranial cruciate ligament disease.

I even did a Four Leg Rehab Minute video on how to find the posteromedial (that’s how I learned it) / caudomedial joint line sulcus.  Check it out here:  https://youtu.be/4plyXPwGLts   

Well, how’s that for noteworthy and nifty?!!

Until next time,

Cheers!  Laurie