Despite vigorous efforts to delineate the efficacy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the diagnosis of meniscal ramp lesions, there is still a great deal of uncertainty regarding its diagnostic performance. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the diagnostic performance of MRI for detecting ramp lesions in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)-deficient knees.

We performed a systematic search of MEDLINE via PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase and included all articles, published before October 20, 2022, comparing the accuracy of MRI with that of arthroscopy as the gold standard for diagnosis of ramp lesions. We performed statistical analysis using Stata and Meta-DiSc software. Quality assessment of the included studies was performed using the QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2) tool.

This meta-analysis evaluated 21 diagnostic performance comparisons from 19 original research articles (2,149 patients). The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve for diagnosing a ramp lesion were 0.70 (95% confidence interval [Cl], 0.66 to 0.73), 0.88 (95% Cl, 0.86 to 0.89), 6.49 (95% Cl, 4.12 to 10.24), 0.36 (95% Cl, 0.28 to 0.46), 24.33 (95% Cl, 12.81 to 46.19), and 0.88, respectively. Meta-regression using different variables yielded the same results.

MRI exhibited a DOR of 24.33 and moderate sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for diagnosing ramp lesions in ACL-deficient knees. However, arthroscopy using a standard anterolateral portal with intercondylar viewing is recommended to confirm a diagnosis of a ramp lesion.

Diagnostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.