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The histological structure of the medial patellofemoral ligament: implications in knee stability and pain generation (914.9)
Author(s) -
Veteto Austin,
Marberry Kevin,
Kondrashov Peter
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.914.9
Subject(s) - medial patellofemoral ligament , medial collateral ligament , medicine , cadaveric spasm , anatomy , ligament , connective tissue , patella , pathology
The histological structure of the knee joint capsule is not well understood. The aim of this study was to quantify the histological composition of the medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) in comparison with the lateral patellofemoral ligament (LPFL), quadriceps tendon (QT), anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), and medial collateral ligament (MCL). The MPFL is frequently damaged in lateral patellar dislocation injuries for which there are several surgical repair procedures. One of the side effects of these repairs is patellofemoral pain syndrome, which origin is unclear and might be due to the difference between in histological composition between the original ligament (MPFL) and the repair tissue. To better identify the role of MPFL in knee stability our comparison involved three ligaments with different known properties and QT to determine its validity as an autograft in MPFL and LPFL reconstruction. Samples of the MPFL, LPFL, QT, ACL, and MCL were excised from ten cadaveric knees and stained with H&E. The histological composition of each of the ligaments was quantified using the point‐counting system. Our data show that the MPFL and LPFL are composed of multiple elements including dense connective tissue, loose connective tissue, vasculature, and nerve fibers. Presence of these elements differentiates the MPFL and LPFL from the QT, ACL, and MCL, which are uniformly composed of dense regular connective tissue.