Patellar retinacular peel: an alternative to lateral retinacular release in total knee arthroplasty

The need to perform a lateral retinacular release (LRR) during total knee arthroplasty (TKA) may be lessened or eliminated by performing a patellar retinacular peel (PRP). PRP involves peeling the extensor retinaculum off the dorsolateral border of the patella to the extent necessary to facilitate patellar eversion. Generally, a portion of the lateral patellar facet is removed to allow conformity with a round patellar prosthesis. The combination of retinacular peel and partial facetectomy decreases lateral retinacular tension, which reduces the tendency toward lateral subluxation. In the study reported here, a series of 50 TKAs that included a PRP in all cases was compared with an earlier series of 50 TKAs that included LRR for control of patellar tracking, as needed. The incidence of anterior knee pain was lower in the PRP group than in the LRR group, though this difference was not significant from a statistical perspective. The 2 groups were virtually identical on other comparison criteria. PRP seems to be a viable alternative to LRR.