Abstract
Background
Jumper's knee is the result of violent and repeated contractions of quadriceps muscle caused by rapid acceleration and deceleration, jumping and kicking that load on patellar tendon stressing its mechanical resistance. The porpose of this retrospective study is to analyze the results, after the debridment of the patellar tendon and the patellar apex abrasion performed by arthroscopy, at a mean follow-up of seven years.
Methods
From 1996 to 2006, sixty-four patients (seventy-three knees) affected by jumper's knee underwent surgical tretment after failure of nonoperative treatment. All knees were operated on by the same surgeon using the same surgical technique: arthroscopic debridement of the articular face of patellar tendon and arthroscopic abrasion of patellar apex. Pre-operative and post-operative evaluation was made according to IKDC score, Lysholm Knee Scale and VISA-P score.
Results
The pre-operative subjective IKDC score was 52,96. This score significantly increased to 94,72 at 12 months post-operation, and has remained nearly constant at 10 years of follow-up. The mean pre-operative Lysholm Knee Scale was 51,57 and significantly increased to 86,48 at 12 months post-operation again remaining nearly constant at 10 years of follow-up. The score according to VISA-P which was pre-operatively 35,32 increased to 69,80 at 12 months post-operation and was 69,35 at 10 years of follow-up.
Nineteen of the twenty-seven patients who were involved in competitive sport continued it at the same level and twenty-four were symptoms-free.
Conclusions
For these satisfactory results, for the low aggressivity of this surgery, for the short recovery time and the faster return to sport we think that the debridment of the patellar tendon and the patellar apex abrasion performed by arthroscopy is the technique to prefer for surgical treatment of Jumper's Knee.
