A Procedure Without Legs — Patellar Denervation
"Should only be brought up to be condemned"
What’s the Claim?
We missed this randomized clinical trial about patellar denervation when it came out last year, but it’s worth covering, because some older studies suggesting it helps may still be guiding some folks’ practices.
Although this RCT was beset by a somewhat-glitchy randomization protocol, it was otherwise solid and mainly confirmatory of other good, more-recent evidence. The main findings were that among patients undergoing TKA without patellar resurfacing, denervation using circumferential electrocautery did not deliver clinically important improvements in Oxford knee scores, WOMAC scores, patella-specific PROM scores, or SF-12 scores for overall health.
