The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between gluteal muscle contracture (GMC) severity and patellofemoral instability and evaluate the reliability of novel indicators by multivariate analysis. Clinical and imaging data from 115 patients with GMC were collected for retrospective analysis. Two novel indicators were used to evaluate GMC severity (knee flexion angle and hip flexion angle, feet distance), and two additional novel parameters were used to reflect patellofemoral instability [patellar displacement vector (L, α), patella-femoral trochlear (P-FT) area, and femoral-trochlear-patella (FT-P) area]. In this study, patients with moderate contracture were dominant, and 35.65% also experienced anterior knee pain after physical activity. Ordered logistic regression analysis indicated that a more serious GMC represented a higher risk of lateral tilt and lateral displacement of the patella. Multivariate analysis showed that feet distance was a reliable indicator for evaluating the severity of GMC. The results showed that the more serious the GMC, the more significant the difference between the P-FT area and the FT-P area of the patellofemoral joint space. L, patellar tilt angle, patellar congruency angle, and lateral patellofemoral angle were independent risk factors for this difference. A more serious GMC represents a higher risk of patellar subluxation.
Keywords: anterior knee pain; arthroscopic GMC release; gluteal muscle contracture; patellofemoral instability.