Diagnosis and Treatment of Osteochondritis Dissecans

Henry G. Chambers, MD, Kevin G. Shea, MD, Allen F. Anderson, MD, Tommy J. (JoJo) Brunelle, PT, DPT, James L. Carey, MD, Theodore J. Ganley, MD, Mark V. Paterno, PT, PhD, Jennifer M. Weiss, MD, James O. Sanders, MD, William C. Watters, III, MD, Michael J. Goldberg, MD, Michael W. Keith, MD, Charles M. Turkelson, PhD, Janet L. Wies, MPH, Laura Raymond, MA, Kevin M. Boyer, Kristin Hitchcock, MLS, Sara Anderson, MPH, Patrick Sluka, MPH, Catherine Boone, BS and Nilay Patel, MA

The complete guideline, which includes all tables, figures, and appendices, is available at http://www.aaos.org/research/guidelines/OCD_guideline.pdf. This clinical practice guideline is based on a series of systematic reviews of published studies in the available literature on the diagnosis and treatment of osteochondritis dissecans of the knee. None of the 16 recommendations made by the work group is graded as strong; most are graded inconclusive; two are graded weak; and four are consensus statements. Both of the weak recommendations are related to imaging evaluation. For patients with knee symptoms, radiographs of the joint may be obtained to identify the lesion. For patients with radiographically apparent lesions, MRI may be used to further characterize the osteochondritis dissecans lesion or identify other knee pathology.