RESEARCH ARTICLE
Patella Infera in an HIV Positive Patient Following Total Knee Arthroplasty
Georg Matziolis*, 1, Lars Morawietz 2, Doerte Matziolis 1, Carsten Perka 1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 5
First Page: 17
Last Page: 19
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-5-17
DOI: 10.2174/1874325001105010017
Article History:
Received Date: 23/4/2010Revision Received Date: 28/10/2010
Acceptance Date: 22/11/2010
Electronic publication date: 7/1/2011
Collection year: 2011

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
A lowering of the patella after total knee arthroplasty is accompanied by pain and a restriction of the range of motion. With its etiology being unclear at present, a multifactorial genesis is under discussion. For the first time, we present a case report describing an HIV infection as a possible cause of patella infera.
A 54-year-old HIV-positive woman developed patella infera (Insall-Salvati ratio 0.6) with a painful restriction of motion 18 months after implantation of a bicondylar surface prosthesis. By changing to a partially coupled endoprosthesis, distalization of the joint line and partial patellar resection, the patient was free of symptoms with a ROM of 0°/0°/110°.
All risk factors known from the literature could be excluded in this case, so that the presence of an HIV infection has to be discussed as a possible cause.