[The depth of the patellar groove of the femur (author's transl)].

The authors have measured the depth of the patellar groove in a 100 human cadavers. An angle of about 143 degrees have been found to be present in normal knees, confirming the work of Brattström. When the angle was more than 150 degrees, the groove was considered to be dysplastic and likely to lead to patellar instability. In contrast when the angle was less than 138 degrees, the groove was thought to be excessively deep. This was present in 19 cases, in 13 of which there were obvious lesions of the articular cartilage. This study in cadavers has been confirmed by a scan study of 148 patients complaining of femoro-patellar syndrome. Deep patellar grooves were frequent in this series, the mean angle being 129 degrees. 80 p. 100 of the patients had an angle less than 135 degrees. It is concluded that deep patellar grooves with a lower angle than normal favour the development of patellar chondromalacia.