FAMILIAL JOINT LAXITY AND RECURRENT DISLOCATION OF THE PATELLA

¹ The Medical Research Council's Clinical Genetics Research Unit and the Orthopaedic Department, the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London

The family we record draws attention to an association between recurrent dislocation of the patella and joint laxity, which is not confined to the knee. This may pass unrecognised if specific inquiry is not made. In this and other families reported, the joint laxity is inherited, as though due to a dominant gene, but some only of those affected suffer recurrent dislocation of the patella. It is probable that there are other genetically determined causes of recurrent patellar dislocation. In three other families we have seen more than one subject of patellar dislocation, but none had lax ligaments, and two other families have been recorded with no mention of associated joint laxity.