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Baker's cyst accompanying knee osteoarthritis represents a common cause of knee pain presenting to the emergency department. In this case report, a 56‐year‐old male presented with atraumatic left knee pain and swelling. Radiographically, he had tricompartmental osteoarthritis and was found to have a baker's cyst on duplex ultrasound. Using point‐of‐care ultrasound, the cyst was aspirated and corticosteroids were injected. The patient tolerated the procedure well and was discharged with a compression wrap and orthopedic follow‐up. Baker's cyst aspiration with corticosteroid injection represents a safe alternative treatment option for patients. In some cases, this treatment may be definitive. Orthopedists currently use this procedure to reduce pain and improve function for patients with chronic knee ailments related to baker's cysts. As demonstrated in this case report, implementing this bedside procedure in the emergency department with orthopedic follow‐up expands non‐surgical, non‐narcotic treatment options for patients with chronic knee pain secondary to Baker's cysts with osteoarthritis.

Ruptured Baker's cyst is easily misdiagnosed as deep vein thrombosis. Recognizing the crescent sign is important to make a rapid and correct diagnosis.

Objective To compare physical examination and ultrasonographic (US) examination for detecting Baker's cyst (BC) in asymptomatic popliteal fossa. Methods Popliteal fossa was examined in a total of 220 knees in 110 patients with knee pain/osteoarthritis (OA) and non-OA individuals. Clinical examination was performed by two independent physicians and US examination was performed by a third blinded physician. Results Examiner A found 25 BC, examiner B found 30 BC in 220 knees examined (κ = 0.35; 95% CI; 0.14–0.56) and inter-observer reliability was moderate. When US examination taken as the reference, receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed an area under the curve of 0.58 (95% CI; 0.51–0.65) for examiner A and 0.57 (95% CI; 0.50–0.64) for examiner B, showing a weak agreement between physical examination and US assessment. Conclusion This study demonstrates that many patients may have BCs without any symptoms at the popliteal fossa and clinical examination of the popliteal fossa could not accurately detect BC. US examination of the popliteal fossa should be performed to detect BCs and this may recover the diagnosis.

Swellings around the paediatric knee have a large differential diagnosis, although the majority can be diagnosed clinically. Some swellings merit further investigation by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Clin. Anat. 24:914–917, 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Background A Baker's cyst is a pathological structure located near a kneepit, which causes discomfort and reduces mobility of the knee. It is commonly treated with aspiration, which often requires MRI scanning and US guidance. The aim of this study was to propose a novel planning solution for semi-autonomous aspiration of the Baker's cyst using only MRI imaging. Methods The proposed method requires minimal user input and offers automatic cyst segmentation with collision-free path planning for the assumed robotic structure with four degrees of freedom. Results The prepared software was tested on four image sets obtained from patients eligible for cyst aspiration. It was possible to accurately segment the cyst in the considered cases. The collision-free path planning method was investigated in numerical scenarios. Conclusions The simulations verified the proposed software solution. Future work will be devoted to experimental verification of the path planning procedure.

From a small series of patients hospitalized with rheumatoid arthritis, six cases are presented in which Baker's cysts were associated with pain and swelling of the calf, initially erroneously diagnosed as thrombophlebitis. The pathogenesis of these calf symptoms is reviewed.