Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34430899›Full record

ReviewArthroscopy, sports medicine, and rehabilitation2021

Ultrasound-Guided Knee Injections Are More Accurate Than Blind Injections: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.

William H Fang, Xiao T Chen, C Thomas Vangsness

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Arthroscopy, sports medicine, and rehabilitation, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
35citing papers in PubMed, 5 pooled it
7.5field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

35 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  6. Trial
  7. Review
  8. Expert consensus on glucocorticoids injection for knee osteoarthritis.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2026
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  18. 9. Chronic knee pain.Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain · 2025
    Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

William H FangDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Xiao T ChenDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
C Thomas VangsnessDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Keck Hospital of USC · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeTo review the current literature to determine which injection technique and needle portal placement provide the greatest accuracy for intra-articular access to the knee.

methodsThis study followed Preferred Reporting Items and Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in March 2020 and repeated in May 2020 using electronic databases PubMed, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Library. Data on the accuracy of intra-articular knee injection (successful injections/total number of injections) were collected. Only Level I studies were included. Study design, demographic variables, needle sizes, and method of validating accuracy were recorded. The Jadad score was used to assess methodologic quality, and a risk-of-bias assessment was performed.

resultsA total of 12 Level I human studies (1431 patients, 1315 knees) were included in this review. Seven of the studies did a direct comparison between ultrasound-guided and blind knee injections. Ultrasound-guided injections were more accurate compared with blinded knee injections in every study. The most accurate anatomical approach was an isometric quadricep contraction method with the superolateral approach.

conclusionsThis study showed that ultrasound-guided knee injections were more accurate across every anatomical needle injection site compared with blind injections. Injections made by a blind/anatomically guided method had inconsistent accuracy rates that seemed highly dependent on the portal of entry. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level I,

Identifiers

PMID34430899
PMCPMC8365196
OpenAlexW3173866577

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.