Purpose: Kienböck's disease affects the lunate bone, and osteoarthritic changes progress as the disease advances; however, relatively few studies have reported the arthroscopic findings of Kienböck's disease, and these reports have been in small populations. The purpose of this study was to review arthroscopic findings in a larger population than studied in previous reports.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 57 patients who underwent radial osteotomy for Kienböck's disease after arthroscopy of both the radiocarpal and midcarpal joints. All arthroscopic findings were classified as follows in terms of the location of osteoarthritic changes: lunate fossa of the radius, proximal/distal surface of the lunate bone, and capitate head. Radiological stages were classified according to the modified Lichtman's classification system.
Results: All but two patients had cartilage lesions in the proximal lunate cartilage. Older patients had significantly more cartilage lesions, but radiological stage showed no correlation with the number of cartilage lesions.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the proximal lunate bone was affected in most cases of Kienböck's disease and that older patients had more cartilage lesions.