Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 6, 2026
Author Spotlight: Unraveling the Mechanobiology of Tendon Impingement – A Multiaxial Murine Hind Limb Explant Model
Published on: December 8, 2023
Radiographic analysis of factors predisposing toward tendon tears in the knee extensor mechanism
Rodrigo Pires E Albuquerque1, André Luiz Siqueira Campos2, José Félix Dos Santos Neto2
1Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, RJ, Brazil.
Objectives:
to review radiographs of patients who suffered tendon tears of the knee extensor apparatus and observe alterations that might be factors predisposing toward this type of injury.
Methods:
we retrospectively analyzed 60 cases of injury to the knee extensor mechanism that were treated surgically at the Miguel Couto Municipal Hospital between March 2004 and March 2011. Four patients were excluded due to poor quality of the examination.
Results:
of the 56 patients evaluated, 23 were considered to be normal and 33 presented radiographic alterations. Among these, eight (24.3%) presented suprapatellar osteophytes alone; seven (21.2%), infrapatellar calcification; seven (21.2%), suprapatellar calcification; six (18.2%), supra- and infrapatellar osteophytes; and five (15.1%), infrapatellar osteophytes alone.
Conclusion:
radiographic alterations were frequently observed in patients with extensor mechanism tears.
