A systematic review and meta-analysis comparing conservative and surgical treatments for acute patellar dislocation in children and adolescents

Purpose To clarify treatment evidence to treat patellar dislocation by evaluating which treatment could yield better improvement of clinical outcomes for acute patellar dislocation in children and adolescents less than eighteen years of age. Materials and methods MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials electronic databases were searched for relevant articles comparing clinical outcomes of conservative and surgical treatments for acute patellar dislocation in children and adolescents published from March 2008 to August 2022. Data searching, extraction, analysis, and quality assessment were performed based on the Cochrane Collaboration guidelines. The quality assessment of each study was investigated using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) critical appraisal scoring system and Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale scores. To calculate the overall combined effect size for each outcome, Review Manager Version 5.3 (The Cochrane Collaboration, Software Update, Oxford) was employed. Results Three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and one prospective study were investigated. In terms of pain (MD: 6.59, 95% CIs: 1.73 to 11.45, I2 = 0%), there were significantly better outcomes in conservative group. Nevertheless, there were no significant differences in any evaluated outcomes such as redislocation (RR: 1.36, 95% CIs: 0.72 to 2.54, I2 = 65%), Kujala score (MD: 3.92, 95% CIs: -0.17 to 8.01, I2 = 0%), Tegner score (MD: 1.04, 95% CIs: - 0.04 to 2.11, I2 = 71%), or subjective results (RR: 0.99, 95% CIs: 0.74 to 1.34, I2 = 33%) between conservative and surgical treatment groups. Conclusion Despite of better outcome in pain with conservative group, the present study revealed no significant differences in clinical outcomes between conservative treatment and surgical treatment in children and adolescents with acute patellar dislocation. Since there are no significant differences in clinical outcomes between the two groups, routine surgical treatment is not advocated for treating acute patellar dislocation in children and adolescents.