Arthroscopy of the patello-femoral joint.

Arthroscopy of the knee joint was performed in 126 patients complaining of symptoms in the patello-femoral joint. In about one-third of these cases the arthroscopic findings in the patello-femoral joint were normal, whereas the remainder had varying degrees of chondromalacia or arthrosis. The classification of changes agreed well with an independent classification carried out in conjunction with surgery. In one-third of the cases there were additional findings which could explain the knee symptoms, more than half of these being degenerative changes reminiscent of an early gonarthrosis located in the femuro-tibial joint. There were no complications arising from the arthroscopy procedure which was well tolerated by the patients. It is concluded that arthroscopy is a helpful tool for differential diagnosis in patients with patello-femoral pain and for classification of degenerative changes in this joint.