Concomitant anterior medializing osteotomy and MPFL reconstruction improves patellar tilt when compared to MPFL reconstruction alone.

PURPOSE: Understanding how surgical procedures influence anatomic factors associated with patellofemoral instability can help guide surgeons when planning treatments for individual patients. This study sought to understand how patellar tilt is affected in adolescent patients with elevated pre-operative tibial tuberosity to trochlear groove (TT-TG) values undergoing medial patellofemoral ligament reconstruction (MPFLR) with or without an anterior medializing osteotomy (AMZ).

METHODS

Utilizing a prospective database of 274 patellofemoral instability patients who underwent MPFLR ± AMZ by one of two orthopedic surgeons at a single institution, those who underwent MPFLR + AMZ were identified. Pre-operative and post-operative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were used to measure TT-TG distance, while radiographs were used to measure patellar tilt (tilt). Patients were matched based on age at surgery (within 2 years) and pre-operative TT-TG distance (within 2 mm) to a comparison cohort of patients who underwent isolated MPFLR (iMPFLR) without osseous procedures.

RESULTS

A total of 56 patients were analyzed (28 per group). The mean age of the cohort was 15.5 ± 2.0 years and was similar between both groups (15.9 ± 1.9 versus 15.1 ± 2.0 years [n.s]). When comparing the two cohorts, significant pre- to post-operative decreases in patellar tilt for both MPFLR + AMZ (6.6 degrees, p < 0.001) and iMPFLR (3.9 degrees, p = 0.013) were noted. While there were no differences in pre-operative patellar tilt (21.2 ± 3.5 versus 21.1 ± 3.4 [n.s]), post-operatively, MPFLR + AMZ had significantly less patellar tilt than iMPFLR (13.2 ± 5.5 versus 16.5 ± 4.4, p = 0.017).

CONCLUSIONS

This study found that patellar tilt significantly improved in participants undergoing either MPFLR + AMZ or iMPFLR. In addition, those undergoing MPFLR + AMZ were found to have significantly lower post-operative tilt than those undergoing iMPFLR. If patellar tilt is found pre-operatively to be significantly elevated and a risk for future dislocations, these findings suggest that surgeons might strongly consider MPFLR with AMZ to further address the increased tilt.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.