Sercan CAPKİN, FATMA GÜLŞAH ZEYBEK, İpek ERGÜR, MUSTAFA CAN KOŞAY, AMAÇ KİRAY

An anatomic study of the lateral patellofemoral ligament

Objective: The lateral patellofemoral ligament (LPFL) is part of the lateral retinaculum cut duringarthroscopic or open release. We investigated its anatomic and morphometric characteristics.Materials and methods: We identiŞed the LPFL insertion point on the condyle in vertical and sagittalplanes in 32 adult cadaveric knees. We measured its length and width at the insertion point. We locatedthe midpoint of this point and measured from it to the distal and posterior condylar ends. We measuredanterior-posterior and proximal-distal lateral condylar lengths. We evaluated the insertion point shapeon the lateral femoral condyle. Degree of relationship between variables was assessed using Pearson'scorrelation coefŞcient. p < 0.05 was considered statistically signiŞcant.Results: The LPFL mean length was 23.2 mm, and mean width at the insertion point was 15.6 mm.Regarding its insertion into the lateral condyle, central insertions were more frequent (vertical plane:53.1% central and sagittal plane: 75% central). A signiŞcant positive correlation was evident between theLPFL length and width at the insertion point (p¼ 0.05). Thus, the LPFL length was proportional to itswidth at the insertion point. A signiŞcant positive correlation was found between the anterior-posteriorcondylar length and width of the LPFL at the insertion point (p¼ 0.017). Therefore, greater anteriorposterior condylar length equates to a larger area of insertion on the condyle.Conclusion: Greater width of the LPFL at the insertion point corresponds to greater LPFL and anteriorposterior lateral condylar lengths.© 2016 Turkish Association of Orthopaedics and Traumatology. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. This isan open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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