Evaluation of Costal Cartilage Injuries

129 chondral fracture involving the sternochondral or costochondral junctions. Fifty-three examinations were identified. Eight of theses examinations (seven chest wall MRI examinations and one abdomen MRI) reported costal cartilage injury and were included in the study. The other examinations were excluded because costochondral injury or fracture was not reported. One of the included examinations involved injuries at two conti guous levels. Five additional MRI examinations of costal cartilage injury from two other institutions were also included, for a total of 13 patients with 14 injuries. The injuries occurred in 10 male and three female patients ranging in age from 17 to 50 years old (mean age, 32.9 years) who had costal cartilage injuries diagnosed on MRI examinations. All 13 patients had a history of antecedent trauma and clinical symptoms directly referable to the area of abnormality on the imaging studies. Injuries were related to sports activities in nine patients. Four of these nine patients with sports-related injuries were professional athletes: three professional hockey players and one professional football player. In the other five patients with sports-related injuries, two patients had wrestling-related injuries and three patients had injuries related to rugby, karate, and weightlifting. The four non-sportsrelated in juries were the result of a motor vehicle accident, a fall from a height, lifting a heavy object, and a heavy object falling on the chest. All but one patient had pain in the involved area of the chest wall. Two patients complained of mass in the chest wall. MRI was ordered to ascertain the cause of the pain or mass and to distinguish between bone, soft-tissue, and cartilage injury. In 11 of the 13 patients, the trauma was fairly close to the time of present ation (< 3 months), whereas, in the other MRI Evaluation of Costal Cartilage Injuries