Arthroscopy in children.

Arthroscopy was performed on the knees of 67 children aged 2-16 years with an overall clinical diagnostic accuracy of 45%. The most common clinical diagnoses were meniscal tear and patello-femoral pain and the accuracy of these diagnoses was 33% and 59% respectively. Diagnostic accuracy seemed unrelated to age. Arthroscopy led to definitive treatment which relieved symptoms in 21 (31%) of cases, revealed a diagnosis only in 43 (64%), and was non-contributory in 3 (4.5%). The procedure did not significantly help patients with patello-femoral pain.