Arthroscopic repair of the medial retinaculum and capsule in acute patellar dislocations.

Treatment for acute dislocations of the patella is highly controversial among many knee surgeons. This study proposes an arthroscopic technique for the surgical repair of the retinacular-capsular defects caused from acute patellar dislocation. The clinical material used involved 30 cases with no previous history of patellar instability and with history of documented lateral dislocation accompanied by an acute hemarthrosis. All individuals in this study were treated with arthroscopic medial capsular-retinacular repair and lateral retinacular release. The follow-up on these patients, ranging from 1 to 7 years postoperatively, revealed that the results of treatment were gratifying in all instances with the exception of one traumatic redislocation. It appears that the arthroscopic procedure used in this study was successful in stabilization of the acute dislocation of the patella, and that it is a beneficial addition to present surgical treatment for the acute dislocation of the patella. This technique provides early accurate diagnosis and, thus, early accurate restoration of normal anatomy. This technique is by no means the only way, but it is one way to obtain satisfactory results in the treatment of this most difficult problem.