Open Access

Sebastian Gebhardt, Alexander Zimmerer, Felix Zimmermann, Georgi I. Wassilew, Peter Balcarek

• Introduction Tibial tubercle osteotomy (TTO) is a common procedure used to treat patients with patellofemoral instability (PFI) and osteoarthritis (PFOA). Medial patellar maltracking due to previous excessive medialization of the tibial tubercle has rarely been reported. Therefore, the goal of this study was to assess patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) after revision osteotomy with lateralization of the tibial tubercle (RL-TTO) to correct medial patellofemoral maltracking. Materials and methods Between 2017 and 2021, a series of 11 patients (male/female 1/10; age 35.8 ± 10.5 years) were treated by RL-TTO, of whom 8 patients could be retrospectively evaluated after a mean of 32.4 ± 15.1 months (range 18–61 months) postoperatively. The Kujala anterior knee pain scale, the patellofemoral subscale of the Knee Osteoarthritis and Outcome Score (KOOS-PF), and a numeric analog scale (NAS; 0–10) regarding anterior knee pain (AKP) at rest and during activity were assessed from pre- to postoperatively. Results The preoperative mean tibial tubercle-trochlear groove (TT-TG) and tibial tubercle-posterior cruciate ligament (TT-PCL) distances were − 6.5 ± 6.5 mm and 0.7 ± 4.6 mm, respectively. The intraoperatively determined amount of tibial tubercle lateralization averaged 10.7 ± 3.6 mm. The Kujala score and KOOS-PF improved significantly from 33.6 ± 10.1 (23–51) points to 94.4 ± 6.2 points (82–100) (p < 0.001) and from 20.6 ± 13.2 points (0–43.3) to 87.3 ± 9.9 points (72.8–100) (p < 0.001) from pre- to postoperatively, respectively. Pain at rest decreased from 5.8 ± 1.9 to 0.8 ± 0.9 (p < 0.001), and pain during activity decreased from 8.6 ± 1.3 to 1.6 ± 1.5 (p < 0.001). Conclusion RL-TTO significantly improved subjective knee function and AKP in patients suffering from medial patellar maltracking due to previous excessive tibial tubercle medialization osteotomy at short-term follow-up.