[Indication for, technic and results of reconstruction of the extensor apparatus in the treatment of patellar instability and patellar chondropathy].

Patella dislocation or subluxation is a common cause of internal derangement of the knee. Frequently they lead to lesions of the articular cartilage of the patella. More than one-hundred operative methods have been described for surgical correction of this condition and for treatment of the chondral damage, suggesting that none has been consistently successful. Long-term results of extensor mechanism reconstruction have been published by Turba et al. (26) advocating a numerical rating system with subjective and objective criteria for the follow-up control. We present our operative technique and results with extensor mechanism reconstruction in 54 cases by applying the above mentioned rating system. With a follow-up period from more than one year 39 patients were available for control. The results of proximal reconstruction (24 cases) were good and excellent in 20 cases by subjective and in 23 cases by objective evaluation. The proximal and distal reconstructions (15 cases) showed subjective 13 and objective 14 patients with good and excellent results.