Injury mechanism of patellar dislocation in professional athletes: a video analysis study

Abstract

Objective: Patellar dislocation (PD) is a devastating injury in professional athletes. An important aspect of injury prevention requires not only identifying the risk factors but also determining the responsible injury mechanism. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the injury mechanisms by examining the videos of PD injuries that occurred in professional athletes. Material and Methods: Injury videos of identified athletes and/or sports competitions where the injury occurred were detected on social media platforms (YouTube®, Twitter®, Facebook®). On January 1, 2021, 32 patella dislocation videos were found. A total of 28 PD that occurred in professional athletes between 1999 and 2020 were identified. Of these, 18 PD injuries with adequate video data were analyzed for injury mechanism, body posture, and player and sports characteristics. Three independent reviewers evaluated the videos. Results: There were 17 (94.4%) male and 1 (5.6%) female athletes. The mean age was 26.2±3.1 years. Distribution of athletic branches were such: four basketball (22.2%), two football (11.1%), nine rugby (50.0%), two soccer (11.1%), and one boxing (5.6%). In 13 cases (72.2%), the injury occurred by contact mechanism. Eight of these injuries (61.5%) occurred as a result of direct contact. The most important findings of this study were that patellar dislocation occurred when the trunk, hip, knee and ankle were slightly flexed. Dislocation occurred with the contraction of the quadriceps while the foot and tibia were performing external rotation. Conclusion: In professional athletes, PD most frequently occurs during a collision. The most common posture of the athlete who lost his balance is the trunk in flexion, knee and hip in flexion, ankle in plantar flexion.