Acute patellar dislocation. What to do?

Acute patellar dislocation is a common knee injury that occurs most often in adolescents, frequently associated with sporting and physical activities. Patellar re-dislocation after the first episode appears to depend primarily on the medial patellofemoral ligament injury which represents the primary ligamentous restraint, providing about 50–60 % of the restraining force against lateral patellar displacement. Clinically, up to 94–100 % of patients suffer from medial patellofemoral ligament rupture after first-time patellar dislocation. Controversy regarding how patients with first patellar dislocation should be managed still exists. Though most authors have reported good results with the conservative treatment after a first-time dislocation, several circumstances may warrant surgical intervention. A surgical approach would be necessary in the presence of severe cartilage damage or a relevant disruption of the medial stabilizers with subluxation of the patella. In these cases, the repair/reconstruction of medial stabilizers should follow the treatment of the chondral injury. Medial patellofemoral ligament reconstruction may be a more reliable method of stabilizing the patella than its repair, which has limitations related to the medial patellofemoral ligament injury location. Nowadays, there is no evidence available where osseous abnormalities should be addressed in addition to restoring the medial patellofemoral ligament.