Laurie's Blogs.

Hi Laurie,

I am looking at a dog who had an injured cruciate and tightrope surgery done in summer of 2011 (18 months ago).  She did amazing in her rehab and did beautifully until about 6 months ago.   Upon examination, the patella is now luxating when the leg is in full extension, and gradually over the last 6 months she is favoring her knee more and more.  

The knee feels very stable to me and has good range of motion with very little crepitus. The patella is luxating a little when the knee is fully extended but pop back in when the knee is flexed. 

She is a 5-year-old pit bull weighing in at about 60 pounds.  Have you seen the tightrope procedure resulting in a rotation of the leg that can then cause patellar luxation?

Thanks,

D

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Hey D!

So the longest I’ve seen Tightrope’s ’out’ is 1 year - only 2 (within my personal caseload)... and they are okay at present.

The only correlation I can make would be that the tightrope material rubs a bit and irritates / denatures / breaks down some of the natural fibrous lateral connective tissues that help hold the patella laterally... 

I think any rotational pull causing a patellar luxation would have occurred sooner into the convalescence phase - when the pull is at the tightest. The tightrope should gradually loosen a bit from the tension originally put into it.

The only other thoughts I’d have would pertain to muscle control.  If, within the first 6 month or so, the dog was exercised deliberately and had good muscle conditioning, then perhaps you never saw a luxation & the owners didn’t witness it - but if the owners became a bit more lax with the exercise regimen, and the dog lost some conditioning, then you may be seeing it now. 

My first course of action would be some targeted, specific strengthening exercises for the quads AND glutes.  We see lots of glute issues with patella luxations in people - and I’ve been seeing them with dogs as well (now that I am looking).  So check for SIJ dysfunctions or hip pain that could cause an atrophy of the gluteal muscles and subsequent lack of stability for the stifle joint! 

So, it may not be a cut and dry correlation to the tightrope!  Sounds like a fun one to do ’detective work’ on!!!!

Hope this helps!  Let me know what you find!

Laurie