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.