Usefulness of the patellar tendon cross section area and volume measurement with MRI in the anterior knee patients

The incidence of patellofemoral pain is relatively higher among patients with ACL reconstruction. There exist no generally accepted classification of anterior knee pain and either no consensus on ethiology. We investigated morphological changes of the patellar tendon in our project. A series of nonoperated 28 patients with anterior knee pain (56 knees) were evaluated to determine the morphologic changes of patellar tendon. Afterwards, MRI scan was carried out to calculate patellar tendon length, thickness, cross section area and volume. We explored patellofemoral discordance with CT and X-ray. There was no difference between two groups ( 33 knee with anterior knee pain ( without malalignment or patella alta) ; 18 knee with no pain). A significant correlation was observed between morphologic parameters and gender. In conclusion, we postulate that using patellar tendon as an autogreft do not cause anterior knee pain in context of morphology