Abstract
Aim: There have been increasingly publications about the complicated disease of patello-femoral joints after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). We have treated soft tissue impingement under the patella after TKA by arthroscopic surgery and investigated the findings and efficacy of the treatment.
Materials and Methods: 6 patients and 8 knees which showed soft tissue impingement of patello-femoral joints after TKA. Surgical arthroscopy was performed and impinging soft tissues were classified and the efficacy of arthroscopic treatment were evaluated.
Results: We classified the patients with soft tissue impingement under the patella into three groups: (I) patellar clunk syndrome; the isolated fibrous nodule located suprapatellar lesion, without the other fibrous tissues causing the impingement, (II) impinging hypertrophic synovitis; generalized hypertrophic synovitis, no fibrous nodule, and (III) the combined type of (I)+(II), the suprapatellar fibrous nodule with generalized hypertrophic synovitis. Therapeutic efficacy was that in the category of type I two were good-excellent, in type II three were fair and one was poor, and in type III two were fair.
Conclusions: Better results were obtained in type I (a patellar clunk syndrome) than type II (impingement synovitis).
The abstracts were prepared by Professor Jegan Krishnan. Correspondence should be addressed to him at the Flinders Medical Centre, Bedford Park 5047, Australia.
