THE ACCESSORY PATELLA (BIPARTITE PATELLA)

Bipartite patella is usually an incidental radiographic finding. Though mostly seen as asymptomatic finding, the accessory patella rarely be painful. Its characteristic accessory ossification center is located at the superolateral pole of the patella. Bipartite patella is usually considered to be without clinical importance. Recently, however, there has been an increasing awareness that bipartite patella may be associated with anterior knee pain. In this study, 310 bilateral knee radiographs of patients admitted to Orthopaedics an Traumatology clinic were examined in order to investigate the presence of accessory patella (bipartite patella). The accessory patella was encountered in 3 out of 310 patients (-1%). All cases were male and one was symptomatic. This ossicle is usually an asymptomatic variation encountered during anatomatic and radiographic examination. But when the patella was traumatized, painful bipartite patella was caused by fracture through the interposed cartilage which failed to heal satisfactorily.

AKSESUAR PATELLA (PATELLA BÝPARTÝTA)

Patella bipartita radyografik incelemelerde rastlantý olarak görülür. Bu aksesuar kemik çoðunluklu asemptomatik görülmesine raðmen, nadiren aðrýlý olmaktadýr. Patella bipartita'nýn karakteristik aksesuar ossifikasyon merkezi superolateral kadranda bulunur. Aksesuar patella'nýn genellikle klinik öneme sahip olmadýðý düþünülmüþtür. Fakat son zamanlarda, bu kemikçiðin anterior diz aðrýsýna sebep olabileceðine dair artan bir ilgi bulunmaktadýr. Bu çalýþmada Ortopedi ve Travmatoloji polikliniðine müracaat eden hastalardan elde edilen 310 radyografi üzerinde aksesuar patellanýn mevcut olup olmadýðý araþtýrýldý. Olgulardan 3'ünde aksesuar patellaya rastlandý. Üçü de erkek olan olgulardan birisi semptomatik bulundu. Bu kemikçik genellikle anatomik ve radyolojik araþtýrmalarda rastlantý olarak karþýlaþýlan asemptomatik bir varyasyondur. Fakat patella travmatize olduðu zaman aksesuar patella semptomatik hale gelebilir. Aksesuar patella ile patella arasýndaki kýkýrdak dokuda meydana gelen bir fraktür ve kýkýrdak dokunun yeterli iyileþme göstermemesi, semptomlarýn ortaya çýkmasýna neden olmaktadýr.