[Endoscopic therapy of pre-patellar bursitis]

Prepatellar bursitis often results from sport-specific activities (e.g. wrestling, soccer, volleyball or ice hockey) or from work-related injuries (e.g. concrete finishing). In such cases, when conservative therapy is not successful, the bursa must be openly removed. Over a period of five years, our clinic conducted a total of 22 arthroscopic bursectomies. The following describes the endoscopic surgery, the postoperative clinical treatment and the results of the associated therapy. A follow-up examination of 22 patients were clinically revealed as successful operation. In one case a recurring bursitis was diagnosed, which deemed necessary an open bursectomy. Six of the patients were professional-caliber athletes (wrestlers, soccer and ice hockey players) and were able to return to their competitive sports following 24 days of rehabilitation. The average return-to-work time was 18 days. It is our opinion that endoscopic bursectomy of bursitis prepatellaris is a less radical and promising technique, given the fact that it can be performed an on out-patient basis using local anaesthesia.