e-CASES: BIPARTITE PATELLA

male, 22y

Performance athlete (gymnastics)

Knee pain superior pole of the patella, especially after training.

Findings

fragmented supero-latateral pole of patella with two distinct patellar fragments

Inflammation inside sincondrosis, but no bone marrow edema on the adjacent sides.

Retropatellar cartilage with slight modiffication in signal, and some structurual changes - condromalacia retropatelae grade II

Diagnosis

bipartite patella

Discussion

due to the fact that it is a well corticated fragment, it is not a fracture, but a non-fused grows patellar nucleus - the so called "bipartite patella"

-the history is although important

DDx

patellar fracture

Key points

-well corticated fragment

-usual location - supero-lateral pole of the patella

-pain due to inflammation of the sincondrosis between the fragments - due to overuse

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