Winter 2000 Newsletter

Communicate, communicate, and communicate. Please send your current e-mail address to the ISAKOS Office at isakos@isakos.com. Since the ISAKOS Office has moved, the e-mail address has changed. Please make a note of it in your records.

ISAKOS President Roland Jakob, M.D., would like to start the "E-SAKOS Message Board." Look for this message board in the coming months on the ISAKOS Web site , where cases will be posted periodically for the membership's comments. We will try to duplicate some of the cases in the newsletter, as with this first example:

Case Report: Patella Baja

D.SD. is a 39-year-old male with longstanding patellofemoral malalignment. He underwent a distal tibial tubercle osteotomy. A non-union at the osteotomy site developed and was treated by revising the fixation six months postoperatively. Over the next year, he gradually lost range of motion of his knee and had increasing pain. The flexion is only 60 degrees.

The bone scan shows only mild uptake and no evidence of infection or reflex sympathetic dystropy. The X-ray at this point showed patella baja.

There are several treatment options being considered:

• patellectomy
• proximalization of the tibial tubercle
• Z plasty lengthening of the patella tendon

Does anyone have any ideas why this patient developed such a severe patella baja?

Please visit the ISAKOS Web site at www.isakos.com to post your comments on the site message board, or fax your responses directly to the ISAKOS Office at +1 (925) 314-7922. All comments are subject to publication on the ISAKOS Web site or in future ISAKOS newsletters.