Abstract des Autors

This review is in two sections covering patellar dislocation and patellar tendinopathy. Anterior knee pain and patellar fractures were not part of the author's brief for the article, while lesions of articular cartilage are to be included in the next paper in the series. There is current interest in the medial patellofemoral ligament and the potential for its reconstruction as a major restraint in preventing lateral displacement. This will become a topical consideration alongside the techniques described in the review. The role of the impinging lower pole of the patella in patellar tendinosis is another topical subject under consideration and mentioned in the review. Such concepts appeal to the orthopaedic surgeon because they give mechanical clues to the cause and, by implication, the surgical treatment in these conditions. In practice, the treatments should always be conservative if possible; however, functional deficiency, implying functional rehabilitation as treatment, is much more difficult to quantify. Until our evidence base for treatment is more than just empirical, there is an important message in the article urging treatment of the patient rather than the imaging appearance. This paper looks at patellar dislocation only in the sports injury context. It does not refer to congenital and habitual dislocation. Verf.-Referat