Have you ever seen a floating knee cap?

I will do my best to keep all HIPPA laws in check. Which basically means I cannot give any info that would identify anyone in any way possible. I also cannot talk about high profile cases. I think I have done a good job of not violating these rules but please notify me if I have somehow.

All photos are taken from the internet randomly.

Case study purpose only

I have seen this a few times; mainly with sports injuries and typically in younger active people in 20s or 30s age range. The patella is a floating bone over the joint that is held by ligaments and can be pushed or floated in a 360* around the leg. I have seen it completely on the under side of the leg before.

* http://www.orthopaedics.com *

It is very painful. Must be held in a position of comfort and limit movement of the patient. So in this case we start an IV; give pain medication and scoop the patient onto the gurney.

* http://www.riverheadvac.com *

Like any other dislocation; it can be fixed by hyperextension of the knee to pop it back into place or by pushing it back into place. Neither of which am I allowed to do because as a paramedic; I do not have malpractice insurance incase something goes wrong and it creates more damage to the area.

credit: Bizzare ER on Youtube

So my job is to prevent further injury and to bring that pain level down. Once I arrived at the ER; the doctor pushed the knee cap over to where it normally is and it "popped" back into place. The patient was shock but she was now able to have full mobility of her leg once again.

If you have had this happen before: You are prone to it happening again.
Here is a video of how to strengthen the area in order to prevent repeated injury.

credit: PhysicalTherapyVideo

All images are taken from bing.com under keywords mentioned above

If I am doing anything that violates hippa or if you have any concerns - please voice them because I would be happy to hear or take down this post. I thought it would be kind of cool to have a medical discussion; people can learn or even I could learn by someone else sharing knowledge.