I was originally going to do a post on why people should not wear high heels, but I was watching the Tennessee-South Carolina game this past weekend and saw an injury I just had to blog about. The patella is a seasmoid bone that lies in the trochlear groove between the medial and lateral femoral condyles. It moves up and down as we flex and extend our knee, and rarely comes out of place. A non-contact patellar dislocation may occur with a violent twisting motion of the leg, while a contact disclocation occurs when some outside force knocks it out of the groove. Three Tennessee defenders were trying to tackle a South Carolina player near the sideline, when one of the Tennessee players hit the patella of his teammate and knocked it out of the trochlear groove, resulting in a patellar dislocation. The patealla was located on the lateral femoral condyle, and clearly could be seen during the telecast. I've tried to locate the video of the injury, but have not had any luck yet. A physician will relocate the patealla back into place by flexing the hip, and gently pushing the patealla medially as the knee is extended. The athlete will likely miss four to six weeks or possibly longer after this injury. Like all other dislocations, once the patella is disclocated, it is much more likely to occur again.
