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UNLABELLED A new patellofemoral arthroplasty is described, based on a previous design of total knee arthroplasty. The indications are for patients with specific isolated patellofemoral disease with advanced chondral or arthritic damage. The design and technique of insertion is detailed. Three hundred six patellofemoral arthroplasties have been done in 240 patients. The initial results show a high level of pain relief and improvement in function. Two-year followup is available for treatment of 124 knees and 5-year followup is available for treatment of 33 knees. There has been no deterioration in pain or function with followup to 5 years, and there were no late complications attributable to the arthroplasty. Disease progression in the tibiofemoral joint has occurred in 14 patients (16 knees, 5%) requiring revision in 10 of these patients (11 knees, 3.6%). Persistent anterior knee pain was recorded in 14 knees (4%). The short-term results using this new design were better than those of the prosthesis that we used previously, especially concerning malalignment and wear. It offers a reasonable alternative to total knee replacement in the small group of patients with isolated patellofemoral disease. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Therapeutic study, Level II (prospective cohort study). See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

An 18-month-old boy treated for congenital dislocation of the hip, developed osteochondritis dissecans of the femoral head. Serial roentgenograms demonstrated that the lesion had healed by the time he was 15 years of age. There have been no previous reports of healing of osteochondritis dissecans complicating congenital dislocation of the hip, or Legg-Calve-Perthes disease, although healing in idiopathic cases has been described.

Although osteoarthritis (OA) generally is considered a disorder of mechanical origin, the common occurrence of chronic mononuclear cell infiltrates in the synovium in conjunction with immunofluorescent evidence for immune-reactant products in cartilage of surgical case specimens (knees, hips, and peripheral joints) has suggested the local involvement of immune processes in the arthritis. Further, the findings of polyarthropathy in the majority of these cases have indicated the propensity for a systemic disorder. Wide variations were noted in both synovial and cartilage immune changes, quite different to those found in rheumatoid arthritis, along with the frequent asymptomatology of the many joints involved. These features, with and without other causative factors, suggest that immune reactions of local and/or systemic origin occur at times in a population at risk for joint degradation.