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Updated: Sep 20, 2026
Evaluation of Stem Cell Therapies in a Bilateral Patellar Tendon Injury Model in Rats
Published on: March 30, 2018
Shortening of the patellar tendon length does not influence the patellofemoral alignment in a cadaveric model
T Muellner1, W A Menth-Chiari, M Funovics
1Department of Surgery, General Hospital Tulln, Alter Ziegelweg 10, 3430 Tulln an der Donau, Austria.
Introduction:
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction with the use of autograft tissue represents the standard treatment. The use of a bone-patellar tendon-bone transplant for symptomatic ACL deficiency achieves good long-term results. The purpose of the study was to investigate in a cadaveric model whether reproducible patellar tendon shortening changes the patellofemoral alignment.
Materials And Methods:
Using five cadaveric knees, an MRI investigation was performed with the patellar tendon left unchanged, shortened 5 mm and shortened 10 mm, respectively, in both 20 and 45 degrees of knee flexion. The lateral patellofemoral and the congruence angles were measured and compared using a one-way analysis of variance for repeated measurements.
Results:
Shortening the patella tendon by approximately 20% did not significantly influence the patellofemoral alignment.
Conclusion:
Although anterior cruciate ligament-reconstruction using the patellar tendon has become a standard procedure, postoperative problems such as anterior knee pain, and patellofemoral osteoarthritis occur quite often. In this cadaver study we did not find a significant difference for the patellofemoral alignment, irrespective of the patellar tendon length.
