Correlation of Bone Bruise and Patients Pain after Acute Knee Injury

Bone bruise is a signal change in MRI and could be the result of bleeding or edema with microfractures in trabecular bone system. Analysis of the location of bone bruise could be a clue for mechanism of trauma. Awareness of pattern, severity and location of bone bruise and pain gives a better understanding of its nature and the related concomitant injuries. In this research the relation between pain and its severity with bone bruise is investigated.
In a prospective study, 22 patients (20 males, 2 female) with mean age of 34 years old and with isolated bone bruise after a knee trauma was studied in a trauma center in Urmia, Iran. Patients scored their pain using Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). For volumetric calculation of bone bruise we used A*B*C vectors multiplication and for severity of bone bruise we used software that measures the resotution of pictures. The locations of bone bruise were also determined and recorded. Finally, the relationship between these parameters and patients’ pain were statistically analyzed.
The mean pain score were 4.40±1.56 in males and 7±2.82 in females. Mean bone bruise intensity was 176.4±42.47. There was no relationship between patient's age and pain severity. There was also no significant correlation between volume or location of bone bruise and severity of pain score (p≥.05). The mean bone bruise volume was 8.77±8.12 and the mean pain sc ore was 4.63±1.78.
Among the multiple characteristics of bone bruise, the intensity has the most direct correlation with severity of pain.