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Impact on Patellofemoral Joint Pressure of Autografts in MPFL Reconstruction wins DJO/ESSKA Grant

Dr Lorbach was delighted to receive the award from Professor Lars Engebretsen, the outgoing President of ESSKA and Lieve Vanden Berghe from DJO.  “The DJO research grant is an important aid for us to realize this biomechanical investigation without being dependent on financial support from the industry,” he said.  “Studies are not only time-consuming but also expensive. Moreover, it is a great honour to be chosen from many high quality papers from across Europe and it has given us renewed motivation to pursue both our present and future studies.”

Their award paper will set out to investigate the biomechanical properties of a facia lata autograft compared to a grazilis autograft in MPFL reconstruction and their possible influences on patellofemoral pressure distributions. Dr Lorbach explains: “The pathology of patellofemoral instability involves multiple factors. Therefore, an anatomic treatment option is difficult to achieve. Even if MPFL rupture or elongation is mostly only a consequence of the dislocation but not the initial instability factor, MPFL reconstruction provides good clinical short term results with low dislocation rates. In order to be as anatomically as possible, the autograft or allograft for the repair should be comparable in the biomechanical properties to the native MPFL. As the semi-tendinosous tendon as well as the grazilis tendon show significant biomechanical differences compared to the native MPFL, other alternatives might more anatomically restore normal knee kinematics which might improve long term results especially in the prevention of patellofemoral osteoarthritis.”

Olaf Lorbach (Winner), Lieve Vanden Berghe, (DJO), Lars Engebretsen (President, ESSKA), Joao Espregueria-Mendes (2nd Vice-President, ESSKA)

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