Abstract
Aim: To systematically review the present evidence-base, assessing the clinical and radiological outcomes following trochleoplasty for trochlear dysplasia.
Methods: An electronic literature search was performed using the AMED, British Nursing Index, CINAHL, Cochrane, EMBASE, ovid Medline, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, PsycINFO, Pubmed and Zetoc databases from their inception to August 2007. Reference lists of identified papers and a hand search of specialist knee journals was also undertaken. All English language, human subject clinical studies, detailing the clinical and/or radiological outcomes of patellar instability patients following a trochleoplasty were included. Two independent reviewers appraised each paper using the CASP tool.
Results: Six papers comprising of 117 trochleoplasty procedures on 99 patients were reviewed. Clinically and radiologically, trochleoplasty was shown to be a safe and effective procedure to correct patellar instability in trochlear dysplasia patients. However, the CASP tool identified that the evidence-base reviewed presented with a number of methodological limitations. These included: limited use of inferential statistics; not applying reliable outcome measurements; poor description of patient recruitment; and evaluating small samples.
Conclusion: Although trochleoplasty may be an effective procedure to correct patellar instability in trochlear dysplasia patients, further study is recommended to assess longer-term outcomes using well-designed studies.
Correspondence should be addressed to Mr T Wilton, c/o BOA, BASK at the Royal College of Surgeons, 35–43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PE, England.
