Patellofemoral pain after total knee arthroplasty. Clinical pathway and review of the literature

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is an operation with a high gain in quality of life. However, some patients suffer from pain, limited range of motion, instability, infections or other postoperative complications. Patellofemoral pain (PFP) in particular is a common complication after TKA and is often responsible for revision surgery. In particular increasing and localized contact pressure and patella maltracking are held accountable for patellofemoral pain but the reasons are various. Diagnostics and therapy of patellofemoral pain is not easy to handle and should be treated following a clinical pathway. We suggest that patients with patellofemoral pain should be classified into four groups according to the suspected diagnosis after basic diagnostic measures as 1) tenidinosis, 2) mechanical reasons, 3) intraarticular non-mechanical reasons and 4) neurogenic psychogenic reasons. Efficient application of special diagnostic measures and further therapy is facilitated by this classification.