mri of knee

Nope -- not mine at least. Just halfway in.

The ***** was staying absolutely still for 20 minutes. Man, that was brutal. They tie you down pretty good, but the dude said even a twich and they would have to start that section over.

So that sucked...just tried not to think about moving.
 
Bevo,

I think you had your knee scoped... I had similar pain and went to the doctor today. MRI tomorrow. Not worried about staying still, but want to have to go all the way in the magnet.
 
I had one after my car accident last summer. It was my first MRI. Very noisy, but I don't remember going into the machine all the way. They plant you on the table feet first.
 
when I had mine done they strapped a tube device around my knee. they didn't put me in tube the whole way.

I didn't mind the noise and small space at all. holding and lying still was a pain, however.
 
funny, i just had mine done yesterday. it's not too bad except in my case i can't extend my knee fully. so they basically have to force your knee into the form for a long period of time. if your leg extends, i can't see how it would be much of a problem. the part that does the reading is pretty small. it's not claustrophobic at all. i'm not claustrophobic, but if i were i wouldn't have had any issue with it. most of my body was out in the open.

i think you're thinking of one of those huge body units that you see on tv. this one was just a "small" one that seemed to be built specifically for arms and legs.
 
Ive had my knees MRIed three times. I've never had to go fully inside the machine. Just close your eyes and try to fall asleep... although they can be loud.
 
I'm an MRI tech so dealing with this everyday..you dont have to worry about anything if its for your knee. Basically your knee has to be in the iso-center of the magnet, in order to get the full strength of the magnet. I'm not sure where you are going or what you have, but there are open MRIs and closed bore MRIs. The open MRIs are easier for bigger patients and claustrophobic patients, but they are weaker strength...most of them are 0.5 tesla. I work on a "hybrid" 1.5 tesla magnet, which seems to be the norm. The bigger hospitals, especially in the med center in Houston have multiple 3 tesla magnets, which is the max. approved.

They are loud as hell, but your place should have some headphones, so bring a CD you want to listen to. They'll straighten your leg out and center your knee in the coil and most likely put in some padding to restrict movement, the #1 enemy of MRIs...since any cough or mouse fart will result in a repeat of that sequence. A knee for us takes about 20-25 min. and add about 6 minutes if you are getting contrast injected.
I've seen claustrophobic 90 year old women go through with it with a coil around their head and neck for over 1 hour...so I think you'll be ok with just your legs stickin in there.

Hope this helps.
 
hey mr. longhorn, quick question. when i had mine done, they told me it would take around 45 minutes, which it did. but i'm pretty sure i moved a bit during a couple of the passes because i was really terribly uncomfortable. does the machine notice the movement and redo the lost data automatically or will i go to my doc's office on the 9th and he'll tell me that i fuckered up the mri readings and make me do it again?

i mean, i guess i'll know in a week, but since we're already talking about it...
 
It depends on what sequence they were running, what body part you moved and what part they were scanning. Some sequences are more susceptible to motion than others. If you had your brain done and moved your leg or arm, then more than likely that didnt hurt it at all. Motion artifacts will be present if you move the part being scanned or just totally flopping around in there. For example, while scanning the carotid arteries in the neck, if you swallow constantly or cough, then more than likely it will have to be redone. For abdomens we put a respiratory trigger on the patient which basically lets the scanner know when an inhale or exhale occurs and the scanner will only scan during the exhale = less motion.
But I wouldn't worry about having to redo the exam, the tech is able to see the images and they wouldn't turn in crap to a radiologist to read. If there was a sequence that had motion, then they would have repeated it there or would have called you back soon after.

As for the redo of lost data, I wish. That would make it a whole lot easier. Although MRI does have something similar called k-space filling. While gaining the original data you can set it to scan certain ways and the computer will average in the blanks to make the image, this helps to speed up the scan a bit.
 
Never thought I'd see a discussion involving segmental k-space filling on Hornfans.
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I had an MRI a couple months ago for a torn ACL.

It wasn't a tube, it was 8 foot-wide disc that hovered over my leg.
 
I've had three MRIs: one on my Achilles, which revealed what my doctor and I both had thought was Achilles tendinitis to actually be Achilles bursitis, and two for my neck to diagnose a C7 radiculopathy.

The Achilles was a breeze except that they had to strap my leg down in a way that kind of made my knee feel twisted. The other two were more challenging because I had to go all the way in and lie there, still, for 45 minutes. Bless the MRI techs, though. The first neck MRI was freaky because I started feeling claustrophobic and like I couldn't breathe. The tech was awesome: she kept talking to me the entire time and reminded me to breathe. She suggested closing my eyes so I couldn't see the ceiling of the tube. The second one was no big deal since I knew what to expect. I had a different tech for the second one and he was just as considerate as the first.

And yes, they are LOUD.
 
okay, I have a torn meniscus. I'm guessing that surgery is likely. Has anyone on the board covered from a torn meniscus without surgery?
 
well, i've had a torn meniscus as well (it'll be confirmed on wednesday likely). i didn't know i had it and it's been bothering me for something like 5 years with occasional bouts of SEVERE pain and swelling. to the point where i couldn't put any pressure on my leg. this just happened a few weeks ago, which is why i got my mri done. so i don't think it heals too well on its own.

the surgery for it is done through scopes and is minimally invasive. evidently most people recover from it quite quickly. they're able to walk within a few days. so personally i don't see a benefit of opting out of surgery. i'm actually really excited to go to the doc on wednesday. if it's a torn meniscus like he thinks, then i'm going to get into surgery as soon as possible.
 
I don't have any data in front of me, but if you have a meniscal tear and leave it untreated, you're much more likely to be bucking for early arthritis and an early total knee prosthesis than for any decent outcome.

A scope is also a good idea because, as much as I hate to admit it, MR is not perfect for a lot of things, and if you had a real enough injury for a meniscal tear, you could have more subtle additional tears or cartilage injuries.

Just my opinion, though.
 
I had surgery for a meniscal tear when I was 19. From what I remember, I had slight tears to both MCL's and meniscal tears in both knees, opposite the MCL's. Everything healed except the meniscal tear in my right knee. The orthoscopic surgery was quick, and recovery wasn't bad at all - better than the 2 months before it, waiting to see what healed on it's own and what didn't.
 
I had a slightly torn meniscus in college and got it repaired at Breck with the scope surgery. Get the surgery if you can, otherwise you stand to have problems the rest of your life from what I hear. It was quick and recovery was nothing. 4 weeks of rehab and you're walking like you did before after about 6 weeks and 2 months later I was back out on the tennis court playing again.

But I believe I already told you all this in an email Mr. Conners.
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I've had both knees scoped in the last three years. Recovery was easy. I was walking without crutches within three days. Did the rehab exercises the doc gave me for four weeks, then cleared to resume weights. I've had to give up running, so got a recumbent stationary bike for aerobics. Still use my Bowflex for strength training - no problems.

Hope all goes well!

HHD
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update: just had my surgery this morning. i'm already back home and chillin in bed. knee feels a lot better already, but i'm also on a vicodin. in any case, the surgery was easy on my end. stuck an iv in me, knocked me out, i woke up and my wife drove me home. now i gotta ice it down for a while and start rehab. there's really no reason to not get this done.
 
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