Background: Ultrasound education has been used as a tool to help improve physical examination skills. However, its utility in increasing accuracy of joint line palpation has yet to be investigated.
Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of resident palpation and identification of the lateral knee joint line before and after introducing a musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) curriculum.
Design: Cohort study.
Setting: A physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) residency program at an academic institution.
Participants: Seventeen PM&R residents.
Interventions: Residents underwent a knee-focused MSUS workshop.
Main outcome measures: Distance from needle placement to joint line confirmed with ultrasound.
Results: All residents demonstrated improved accuracy in lateral knee joint line palpation after completing a knee-focused MSUS workshop, with statistically significant (P < .05) improvement in postgraduate year (PGY) 2 (P = .02), PGY-3 (P = .04), and across all residents (P = .001).
Conclusions: MSUS education significantly improved lateral knee joint line palpation accuracy in resident physicians.
© 2020 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.