RESEARCH ARTICLE
‘Not Always a Baker’s Cyst’ – An Unusual Presentation of a Central Voluminous Postero-Medial Meniscal Cyst
Harish Sivasubramanian* , 1, Gerard Ee2, Manjunatha Ganiga Srinivasaiah2, Shamal Das De2, AM Sing2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2012Volume: 6
First Page: 424
Last Page: 428
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-6-424
DOI: 10.2174/1874325001206010424
Article History:
Received Date: 16/5/2012Revision Received Date: 25/8/2012
Acceptance Date: 28/8/2012
Electronic publication date: 20/9/2012
Collection year: 2012

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Meniscal cysts are rare and often are a result of extrusion of synovial fluid through a tear of the meniscus, resulting in a one-way valve effect of the tear. Arthroscopic partial meniscectomy of the meniscus with intra-articular cyst drainage has become the standard of care. We report a case of an unusually large symptomatic medial meniscal cyst, situated postero-medially and pressing on the posterior cruciate ligament, which was initially clinically misdiagnosed as a Baker’s cyst. The patient had difficulty and pain on squatting. He was successfully treated with arthroscopic debridement and needle decompression; a rarity in literature for such a voluminous perilabral cyst tenting the posterior cruciate ligament. This procedure has the advantage of being able to obtain the cystic fluid for histological and cytological analysis before debridement. This case also highlights the importance of the use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to accurately diagnose a central, posterior knee swelling.