gms | German Medical Science

7th EFSMA – European Congress of Sports Medicine, 3rd Central European Congress of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Annual Assembly of the German and the Austrian Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Austrian Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

26.-29.10.2011, Salzburg, Austria

Patelar retinaculum ligament injury. MRI evaluation

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Antonia Bintoudi - Department of Radiology, Papageorgiou Genaral Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • author Despoina Konstantinou - Department of Radiology, Papageorgiou Genaral Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • author Vera Kyriakou - Department of Radiology, Papageorgiou Genaral Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • author Charalampos Maskalidis - Department of Radiology, Papageorgiou Genaral Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • author Natasa Kotziamani - Department of Radiology, Papageorgiou Genaral Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • author Christos Lyrtzis - 2Anatomic Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • author Konstantinos Natsis - 2Anatomic Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

7th EFSMA – European Congress of Sports Medicine, 3rd Central European Congress of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Salzburg, 26.-29.10.2011. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2011. Doc11esm227

doi: 10.3205/11esm227, urn:nbn:de:0183-11esm2272

Published: October 24, 2011

© 2011 Bintoudi et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Objective: The patellar retinacular ligaments are a coalescence of multiple fascial elements that help stabilize the patella. The fascial elements of the patellar retinaculum complex consist of contributions from extensions of the quadriceps mechanism and fascial layers investing the medial and lateral supporting structures of the knee. Injury of retinaculum is usually associated with acute patellar dislocation injuries. Transient lateral patellar dislocation is an injury that occurs in recreational and high-performance athletes. The injury most commonly results from a twisting motion, with the knee in flexion and the femur rotating internally on a fixed root. Although the diagnosis can be made on the basis of the patient’s history and physical examination, in the acutely swollen and painful knee, it may be difficult to distinguish patellar dislocation from other more common traumatic injuries. In this report, we review our experience with MR imaging of the spectrum of patellar retinacular ligament injuries.

Material/Methods: They were examinated 12 patients with acute or repetitive history of knee trauma and clinical suspicion of subluxation or luxation of the patella. Three of them were ski athletes after acute trauma, four were basketball players, two of them after acute trauma, two were tennis player and two football player. The interval time of trauma was estimated to 14 days. 10 of the patients had a positive MRI examination 3 women. (30%) and 7 men (70%) aged between 11 to 31 years old. The MR examinations were performed with a 1 Tesla Siemens Expert Plus. The MR examinations included axial STIR and T2* sequences, coronal and saggital T 1-WI , PD ,and T2- WI and post contrast T1 sequences.

Results: 10 (83,3%) patient had positive MRI examination. All the patients had an amount of intrarticular fluid and injury of patellar retinaculum. Eight of them (80%) had injury of medial retinaculum and only 2 (20%) had injury at both retinaculum. Seven patients (70%) had additional strain of one, or both cruciate ligament thus one (10%) had strain of the lateral collateral ligament.

Conclusion: MRI in patients with history of knee trauma and clinical suspicion of injury of patellar retinaculum is the gold standard method not only for the diagnosis of retinaculum injuries but for the concomitant lesions also.


References

1.
Elias DA, White LM, Fithia DC. Acute Lateral Patellar Dislocation at MR Imaging: Injury Patterns of Medial Patellar Soft-Tissue Restraints and Osteochondral Injuries of the Inferomedial patella. Radiology. 2002;225:736-43.
2.
Quinn SF, Brown TR, Demlow TAC. MR Imaging of Patellar Retinacular Ligament Injuries. JMRI. 1993;3:843-7.