Clinical Research Directory

New Care Pathway Using Automated Dynamic Laximetry

Today, in the event of a knee sprain with suspected cruciate ligament damage, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is generally prescribed to confirm or refute the diagnosis and assess its severity. Once the MRI has been performed, the patient's care is organized by the doctor of his or her choice, depending on the diagnosis. Previous studies have shown that Automated Dynamic Laximetry (ADL) performs identically to MRI in helping to diagnose a knee sprain as a complementary examination and in assessing its severity. Performing LDA at the start of the patient's care pathway, i.e. immediately after the emergency room visit for a suspected severe sprain, could bring significant benefits by shortening the diagnostic confirmation time and consequently the immobilization period, and by reducing the cost of care compared with the conventional MRI-based care pathway. The new LDA-based care pathway would enable MRI to be reserved for very specific cases, such as the scheduling of surgery for suspected meniscus or osteochondral lesions, as currently recommended by the HAS.