Congenital and irreducible non-traumatic dislocation of the patella--a modified soft tissue procedure

Many procedures have been described for the correction of congenital dislocation of the patella. Most operations entail extensive soft tissue releases through curved skin incisions. A modification of the Langenskiold and Ritsila procedure is described. The main alterations include a limited and straight anterior skin incision, a fashioning of a 'buckle' of the transferred distal-patellar tendon to a distally based flap and the transposition of an extensive medial rotation flap. This report describes the early results (mean=19 months) of the modified procedure in three cases of congenital lateral dislocation of the patella.