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©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. May 18, 2023; 14(5): 268-274
Published online May 18, 2023. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v14.i5.268
Published online May 18, 2023. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v14.i5.268
Unhappy triad of the knee: What are the current concepts and opinions?
Amir Human Hoveidaei, Sports Medicine Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 14395-578, Iran
Reza Sattarpour, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1416634793, Iran
Haleh Dadgostar, Department of Sports and Exercise Medicine, School of Medicine, Rasool Akram Medical Complex, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1445613131, Iran
Saeed Razi, Bone and Joint Reconstruction Research Center, Department of Orthopedics, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1545913487, Iran
Mohammad Razi, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rasoul Akram Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1445613131, Iran
Author contributions: Hoveidaei AH and Sattarpour R contributed equally to the work. All authors contributed to the conception and design of the study; Hoveidaei AH, Sattarpour R, and Razi S drafted the article; Dadgostar H and Razi M made critical revisions related to the important intellectual content of the manuscript; all authors approved the final version of the article to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest with this work.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mohammad Razi, MD, President, Professor, Surgeon, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rasoul Akram Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, 8th Ahmad Qasirah Street, Argentina Square, Tehran 1445613131, Iran. mrazi@razimd.info
Received: December 26, 2022
Peer-review started: December 26, 2022
First decision: January 20, 2023
Revised: January 24, 2023
Accepted: April 6, 2023
Article in press: April 6, 2023
Published online: May 18, 2023
Peer-review started: December 26, 2022
First decision: January 20, 2023
Revised: January 24, 2023
Accepted: April 6, 2023
Article in press: April 6, 2023
Published online: May 18, 2023
Core Tip
Core Tip: Traditionally, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), medial collateral ligament (MCL), and medial meniscus (MM) were thought to be the unhappy triad of the knee; however, lateral meniscus injuries are thought to be more common in association with ACL and MCL tears. Clinicians, radiologists, and orthopedic surgeons should be aware of the unhappy triad of the knee, while performing physical examinations, radiologic assessments, or knee arthroscopy. MCL spontaneous healing is possible in some cases with lower grades of tear; however, consideration of patient knee alignment and accuracy in MCL size for non-operative treatment decision-making is critical.