Imaging assessment of anterior knee pain and patellar maltracking

Anterior knee pain is a common complaint in the orthopaedic clinic. The differential diagnosis is wide and the principal goal of initial assessment is to detect remediable causes. The majority of patients do not have a specific disease and increasingly interest has focused on the role of patello-femoro-tibial morphology and of patellar maltracking in the aetiology of anterior knee pain. Classification in this group of patients is poor and there is no uniform agreement on which patient groups benefit from treatment and which treatment is best. Much of the literature involves relatively small numbers of patients, is poorly controlled and there is little agreement on outcome measures. The purpose of this review is to outline the current status of the imaging assessment of recalcitrant anterior knee pain with particular reference to patellar maltracking.