[Results of autopsy examination of the knee cartilage of 120 patients dying in the hospital. II. The femoro-tibial joint]

Abstract

The authors have studied the autopsy results of both tibio-femoral joints in 120 patients: 57 women and 63 men, 112 of whom were over the age of 50. The condylar and tibial cartilages were classified into 5 categories: no lesion (0); slight fissure (I); severe fissure (II); slight deep ulceration (III); large ulceration (in more than 25 p. cent of the cartilage surface) exposing the sub-chondral bone (IV). In 120 patients, the 4 condyles in 58 patients (43.8 p. cent) and both tibio-femoral joints in 51 patients (42.5 p. cent) did not present any degenerative lesions beyond stage I. Stage III and IV cartilaginous lesions are rare before the age of 50. Their frequency suddenly increases after the ages of 70 in women and 80 in men. 44 p. cent of women and 31 p. cent of men presented tibio-femoral cartilaginous lesions of stages II or IV in at least one knee; 15.8 p. cent of women and 4.7 p. cent of men presented tibio-femoral lesions, stage IV, in at least one knee. In 58 p. cent of stage III and IV knee lesions, the menisci were abnormal: atrophic or torn. A menisco-chondrocalcinosis was found in 50 knees (20.8 p. cent of knees) of 28 patients (23.3 p. cent of patients). After the age of 60, the cartilaginous lesions were more severe and more extended in knees with menisco-chondrocalcinosis).