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SpecialtiesHospital MedicineQuestion

How do you approach the management of a symptomatic Baker's cyst?

3 Answers
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Rheumatology · Mobile Medical Care Inc

I have offered NSAIDs, PT, and ultrasound-guided aspiration and injection for management of a symptomatic Baker’s cyst in a patient with OA or mechanical pathology. I favor aspiration and injection of the knee joint as well as the cyst, though the literature does not necessitate injection of the joi...

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Rheumatology · University of Kansas

The first step in treating a Baker's cyst is determining if it is an isolated phenomenon or part of a systemic disease. If osteoarthritis or inflammatory arthritis is producing fluid accumulation within the knee, an area of synovial weakness permits "herniation" to produce the cyst. Just draining th...

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Rheumatology · Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS)

I have the same approach as @Paul J. DeMarco; those of us who perform US-guided cyst aspiration and corticosteroid injection find this to be more beneficial than the older method of anterior joint aspiration/injection, and is supported by a recent systematic review: Van Nest et al., PMID 32149934.

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