A study of the position of the patella using computerised tomography. J Bone Joint Surg Br

This investigation has been performed to study the relationship between the articular surfaces of the patella and the femoral condyles with the knee extended. A computerised tomographic scanning technique was used on twelve normal subjects in whom it was shown that when the knee is in full extension the patella usually lies laterally and incongruently in contact with the lateral femoral condyle. A review of the literature shows that the relation-ship between the articular surface of the patella and the lateral femoral condyles has not been studied with the knee in extension. Albee (1 9 15) stated that, with the knee extended, the patella normally lay between the femoral condyles, and that it displaced laterally during flexion. Goodfellow, Hungerford and Zindel (1976) studied the relationships of the articular facets of the patella and the femoral condyles through the range of flexion from 20 to 90 degrees and found that the condylar surfaces articulated with the lateral and media