YOUR PET 2/14/2011 by Michelle Posage & Bruno Massat
Knee Cap Dislocation in Dogs, a common but easily fixable problem.
The overall anatomy of mammals is pretty constant. But for some reasons, different names are used when it comes to animals. For instance, the dog knee is called the stifle, although all the structures are the same as in the human knee. And just as is the case with humans, dogs can suffer from a dislocation or a luxation of their kneecap, the patella in medical terms.
But this is where the similarities stop. An orthopedic surgeon friend of mine once told me that patella luxations in humans are more likely to have a traumatic origin. Although traumatic luxations in dogs do exist, it is fairly unusual. Most of the time, patella luxation is spontaneous and present at birth or at an early age as the result of an abnormal anatomy of the stifle. And surgical stabilization nearly always requires some restoration of a more normal anatomy as part of the treatment.
But first what is this normal anatomy? In a normal knee, every time the joint bends or extends, the kneecap should remain centered at the end of the thigh...
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