title: Anterior subluxation of the lateral tibial plateau. A diagnostic test and operative repair.
abstract: Recurrent anterior subluxation of the lateral tibial plateau is a common type of chronic knee instability resulting from trauma. It can be reproduced by the clinical test described and corrected by a surgical procedure called the sling and reef operation, in which a strip of iliotibial tract is used to create a sling and to reef the posterolateral capsule. From 1971 to 1978, eighty-four patients were operated on, of whom fifty had been evaluated at one to six and one-half years after operation. The results were: forty-one good, six fair, and three poor. The lesions found in the thirty-seven knees in which arthrotomy was performed included a tear of the anterior cruciate in every case, a tear of the medial meniscus in fifteen and of the lateral meniscus in eleven, a notch in the articular surface of the lateral femoral condyle in fifteen, and a lateral marginal tibial (Segond) fracture in three. No definite lateral capsular tears were visualized--only stretching comparable to that seen in recurrent dislocation of the shoulder.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001847:Bone Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007592:Joint Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D004204:Joint Dislocations / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008722:Methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D013977:Tibia / Q000601:surgery*