ABSTRACT
Knee arthroscopy is used as a diagnostic and interventional tool in a wide variety of conditions. Any preoperative imaging should be available. Appropriate instrumentation should be available and checked by the surgeon, including the arthroscope, camera, light lead, arthroscopic instruments, irrigation fluid pump and the ‘stack’, which must include a functioning light source and monitor. Anaesthesia is usually general, though regional anaesthesia is acceptable. The position is supine. A side support can be used, at the level of the upper- to mid-thigh, to provide a lever when opening up the medial compartment. All arthroscopy requires at least two portals with by far the most common two being the anterolateral and anteromedial portals. The anteromedial portal is created under direct vision with the arthroscope viewing the medial compartment. The posterolateral portal is placed in a soft point between the lateral head of gastrocnemius, the lateral collateral ligament and the posterolateral tibial plateau.
