Can someone please translate this into easy to understand terms please.
I hope that I have attached this right and its big enough to read. I have an appointment tomorrow want to be prepped for it. Hate it when hospitals don't fully expalin this in easy to know words!!
Do I understand yo have hard 2 MRI scans some time apart because your doctor wanted to know if you have a torn ligament after dislocating your knee?
In the first scan there was a tear to the medial patellofemoral ligament but there is no evidence of that in the second so it has healed. However, that ligament looks thinner than normal. The radiologist says he can see that the patella is small and in the wrong position (patella alta) and that it has been dislocated recently:
"This is the condition where a person is born with a kneecap (patella) positioned higher in the front of the knee than the average. They are very often good athletes and seem to do well in high jump, triple jump and basket ball. The problem with patella alta is that the knee cap is very mobile from side to side and is predisposed to dislocation during sporting activities. Once the patella has dislocated several times it is called recurrent dislocation and can be a major nuisance to the sporting individual causing them to give up all sporting activities. It has been the end of many basket-ball and football players’ careers, in whom the condition is common. In some people the dislocation is incomplete and then it is called subluxation of the patella."
He also says that the cartilage under the patella has a crack (fissure) in it which wasn't present in the first scan and there is also some fluid present (effusion).
"This condition can be caused by:
- overuse of the knee joint, such as during certain types of exercise
- misaligned bones in the knee and foot
- a knee injury, such as a broken or dislocated kneecap
- other knee trauma"
I think they are saying (I'm not an orthopod specialising in knees!) that your dislocation was probably due to the wrong position of the patella and it is likely to keep happening and that the fissure is due to that. My daughter had this problem (I think, the description shoulds similar at least) and her knee kept dislocating - didn't need to be during sport, she caught it on the bath once and it happened! She had an operation to stabilse the patella and it hasn't happened since.
Hope this helps you understand it.
You have a torn ligament and a dislocated kneecap.
too small to read on a cell phpne, sorry