Patella Ridgestop

When Reggie the 4 year old Pomeranian came in for his yearly booster, his owner mentioned that he sometimes hopped and held up his left back leg. Our vets diagnosed that this was due to a luxating patella (kneecap). This is a condition where the kneecap moves from side to side, out of the groove it normally sits in on the thigh bone in the knee joint. This can happen due to disease, trauma or degeneration and can cause pain, lameness and arthritis in more severe cases.

Reggie returned a few months later when his walking deteriorated. It was decided that the best outcome in Reggie’s case was to perform a patella Ridgestop operation. A synthetic ridge is screwed onto the bone building up the sides of the patella groove and stopping the patella from slipping out of its normal position.

 In Reggie’s case, it offered knee stability with minimal joint interference. The surgery went well, within 5 days Reggie had started to use his leg and by his final post-operative check at 2 weeks, he was walking normally. Reggie had to be restricted to lead walks for a few weeks but he can look forward to normal exercise without the discomfort in the near future.

We can offer this operation at our Moseley branch performed by our surgical certificate holder Diana.