Arthroscopic Anatomy of the Knee Joint and Portals

Knee arthroscopy is one of the most used operative treatments in orthopedic surgery. The first knee arthroscopy was performed by Prof. K. Takagi, from Tokyo, Japan, in 1920. With further improvement, he made the first black and white photos of the inside of the knee (1932) and, soon, the first color photos (1939). Independently from Takagi, Dr. Eugen Bircher from Arau, Switzerland, in 1921 published the results of 20 “arthro-endoscopies,” and that was the first time the word “arthroscopy” was mentioned in literature. In New York, USA, Dr. Michael Burman described in detail the incision points and technique of joint spreading that we use today. In 1957, Dr. Masaki Watanabe published the first Atlas of Arthroscopy. The first Arthroscopy Course in English language was held in Philadelphia, USA, in 1972. The International Arthroscopy Association, with Dr. Watanabe as president, was established in 1974. In clinical knee arthroscopy, the following division proved to be very useful: the medial compartment, the lateral compartment, the central part or central pivot, and the femoropatelar compartment. In this chapter, the normal anatomy of each of this part will be described in detail, with the descriptions of basic knee arthroscopy portals.