Patellar Tendon Anatomy¶
This section describes the patellar tendon anatomy, including the tibial and patellar insertion sites.
General Description¶
The patellar tendon (PT) extends from the inferior pole of the patella to the tibial tuberosity [LAF12].
- Tibial insertion: is an irregular pentagonal shape with a medially directed superior apex and is widest proximally (Fig. 34). The mean tendon insertion width (Iw in Fig. 34 ) of 23.9 +/- 3.0 mm is nearly half that of the patella width at its greatest dimension (42 +/- 4.5 mm) [DWP+14].
- Length: as the distance from the most proximal aspect of the attachment to the inferior pole of the patella is 52.88 +/- 7.56 mm [NRLC+02].

Fig. 32 Anterior view of a left knee at 90 degree flexion showing the attachments of the patellar tendon [KCM+18].

Fig. 33 A sagittal and axial MRI view of patellar tendon (arrow) [noa06].

Fig. 34 Tibial insertion of patellar tendon in a right knee. Surface area landmarks are showing the Inserion Width (Iw), Insertion height(Ih), Superomedial edge length (A), Superolateral edge length (B), Lateral edge length (C), Inferior edge length (D) and Medial edge length (E) [DWP+14].
[LAF12] | Julienne Lippe, Amy Armstrong, and John P. Fulkerson. Anatomic Guidelines for Harvesting a Quadriceps Free Tendon Autograft for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction. Arthroscopy, 28(7):980–984, July 2012. URL: https://www.arthroscopyjournal.org/article/S0749-8063(12)00041-2/abstract, doi:10.1016/j.arthro.2012.01.002. |
[noa06] | Jumper’s Knee. December 2006. URL: http://radsource.us/jumpers-knee/. |
[DWP+14] | (1, 2) Geoffrey F. Dervin, Timothy Whitehead, Phil Poitras, Milton Parai, and Hakim Louati. The Effect of Medial Release of the Distal Patellar Tendon Insertion on Lateral Patella Translation and Residual Insertion Strength: A Cadaveric Study. The Journal of Arthroplasty, 29(3):525–529, March 2014. URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883540313005627, doi:10.1016/j.arth.2013.07.044. |
[KCM+18] | Bradley M. Kruckeberg, Jorge Chahla, Gilbert Moatshe, Mark E. Cinque, Kyle J. Muckenhirn, Jonathan A. Godin, Taylor J. Ridley, Alex W. Brady, Elizabeth A. Arendt, and Robert F. LaPrade. Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of the Medial Patellar Ligaments: An Anatomic and Radiographic Study , Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of the Medial Patellar Ligaments: An Anatomic and Radiographic Study. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 46(1):153–162, January 2018. URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0363546517729818, doi:10.1177/0363546517729818. |
[NRLC+02] | Ph Neyret, A. H. N. Robinson, B. Le Coultre, C. Lapra, and P. Chambat. Patellar tendon length–the factor in patellar instability? The Knee, 9(1):3–6, February 2002. |