Separation of a bipartite patella combined with quadriceps tendon rupture: a case report

Separation of a bipartite patella is very rare. We found only seven cases in the literature [Carter SR. Traumatic separation of a bipartite patella. Injury 1989;20:244; Ireland ML, Chang JL. Acute fracture bipartite patella; case report and literature review. Med Sci Sports Exerc 1995; 27:299-302; Ishii M, Yabuno K, Ishikawa T, Tsujino H, Yamaguchi K. A case of bipartite patella separation accompanied by subcutaneous rupture of quadriceps tendon. Seikeigeka (Orthopedic Surgery) 2003;54:1563-5. [In Japanese]; Canizares GH, Selesnick FH. Bipartite patella fracture. Arthroscopy 2003;19:215-7; Okuno H, Sugita T, Kawamata T, Ohnuma M, Yamada N, Yoshizumi Y. Traumatic separation of a type 1 bipartite patella; a report of four knees. Clin Orthop 2004;420:257-60]. Among these cases only one was complicated with quadriceps tendon rupture, and the patient had diabetes as underlying disease [Ishii M, Yabuno K, Ishikawa T, Tsujino H, Yamaguchi K. A case of bipartite patella separation accompanied by subcutaneous rupture of quadriceps tendon. Seikeigeka (Orthopedic Surgery) 2003;54:1563-5. [In Japanese]]. To our knowledge, there have been no reports of this condition in a healthy subject. In this report, we present a case of bipartite patella separation complicated with quadriceps tendon rupture in a patient with no underlying disease. Treatment involving suturing the tendon to the patella and osteosynthesis of the bipartite patella produced a good result.