Treatment of distal patellar tendon chronic rupture: the x-wave technique

Abstract

Objective: Injuries to the patellar tendon (PT) are associated with knee function deterioration and loss of the capacity to perform daily and sports activities. Patellar tendon injury is often misdiagnosed at emergency rooms, leading to chronic proximal retraction and a challenging clinical scenario. Proximal PT injuries are more common, while distal ones, which can involve tibial bone avulsion fractures or direct tendon avulsion, are rarer. The low incidence of distal PT rupture and the variety of injury patterns make a personal approach reasonable when based on the intraoperative findings and the surgeon’s experience. Our purpose is to describe a surgical technique to restore the knee extensor mechanism after chronic distal PT rupture using two kinds of graft, one as a waveform augmentation of the native tendon and the other as reinforcement in a letter X aspect.