Treatment of patellofemoral chondropathy with the Bandi tibial tubercle osteotomy: More than 10 years follow-up

Isolated degenerative patellofemoral chondropathy is a prevalent disease. There is still controversy regarding its ideal type of management.A retrospective study was performed to assess the outcomes of 28 patients with a minimum of 10-year follow-up, in whom the Bandi tibial tubercle osteotomy was performed.The Bentley score was applied pre and postoperatively to evaluate the clinical results.Preoperatively, 21 (67%) patients were rated as fair and seven (33%) as poor according to the Bentley functional scale for patellofemoral osteoarthritis.At 5 years of follow-up, one case was rated as excellent, 23 (81%) cases as good, three as fair and one as poor.At 10 years of follow-up no cases were rated as excellent, 17 (61%) cases as good, four (14%) as fair and seven (25%) as poor. The difference in terms of poor results evaluated at five and 10 years after the surgery was statistically significant (p < 0.05).We concluded that excellent and good short-term results can be expected with the use of the Bandi tibial tubercle osteotomy in patients with isolated degenerative patellofemoral chondropathy; however, such outcomes tend to deteriorate over the time, especially in patients with advanced chondromalacia, making its indication controversial.