Abstract
Patellar luxation results in abnormal positioning of the patella outside the trochlear groove, leading to microscopic and macroscopic alterations within the canine stifle joint. This study evaluated histopathological changes in the articular cartilage and joint capsule of dogs affected by patellar luxation, along with gross intra-operative findings observed during surgical correction. Articular cartilage and joint capsule samples from fourteen affected stifle joints and two control joints were examined histologically. Erosive lesions of articular cartilage were observed across multiple stifle joint subdivisions. Affected joints demonstrated inflammatory and degenerative changes in both articular cartilage and joint capsule. Quantitative analysis revealed significantly greater chondrocyte loss in Group III (Grade 4) cases compared with lower-grade luxation groups, while Safranin–O staining demonstrated significantly reduced proteoglycan content in Group III compared with control samples. Gross intra-operative assessment identified articular cartilage erosions, most frequently involving the distal patella and lateral trochlea, as well as variable degrees of osteophytosis. These findings indicate an association between patellar luxation and structural alterations of stifle joint tissues, with more pronounced changes observed in higher-grade cases.
Data availability
The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Alam, M. R., Lee, H. B., Kim, M. S. & Kim, N. S. Surgical model of osteoarthritis secondary to medial patellar luxation in dogs. Vet. Med. 56 (3), 123–130 (2011).
Bosio, F., Bufalari, A., Peirone, B., Petazzoni, M. & Vezzoni, A. Prevalence, treatment and outcome of patellar luxation in dogs in Italy. Vet. Comp. Orthop. Traumatol. 30(05), 364–370 (2017).
Chomdej, S., Ongchai, S. & Nganvongpanit, K. Prevalence of cartilage erosion in canine patellar luxation and gene expression in affected joints. Kafkas Univ. Vet. Fak. Derg. 22(4), 561 (2016).
Daems, R., Janssens, L. A. A. & Béosier, Y. M. Grossly apparent cartilage erosion of the patellar articular surface in dogs with congenital medial patellar luxation. Vet. Comp. Orthop. Traumatol. 22(03), 222–224 (2009).
Jahrupatrakorn, S. Intra-articular characteristics of dogs with medial patellar luxation. (Master’s Thesis, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand) (2017).
L’Eplattenier, H. & Montavon, P. Patellar luxation in dogs and cats: Pathogenesis and diagnosis. Compendium 24(3), 234–240 (2002).
Lara, J. S., Alves, L. E. G., Oliveira, H. P., Varon, J. A. C. & Rezende, C. M. F. Patellar luxation and articular lesions in dogs: A retrospective: Study research article. Arq. Bras. Med. Vet. Zootec. 70, 93–100 (2018).
Ness, M. G., Abercromby, R. H., May, C., Turner, B. M. & Carmichael, S. A survey of orthopaedic conditions in small animal veterinary practice in Britain. Vet. Comp. Orthop. Traumatol. 9(02), 43–52 (1996).
O’Neill, D. G., Meeson, R. L., Sheridan, A., Church, D. B. & Brodbelt, D. C. The epidemiology of patellar luxation in dogs attending primary-care veterinary practices in England. Canine Genet. Epidemiol. 3, 1–12 (2016).
Putnam, R. W. Patellar Luxation in the Dog. (Doctoral Dissertation, University of Guelph, ON, Canada) (1968).
Singleton, W. B. The surgical correction of stifle deformities in the dog. J. Small Anim. Pract. 10(2), 59–69 (1969).
Wander, K. W., Powers, B. E. & Schwarz, P. D. Cartilage changes in dogs with surgically treated medial patellar luxations. Vet. Comp. Orthop. Traumatol. 12(04), 183–187 (1999).
Wijekoon, H. S. et al. Differentiation potential of synoviocytes derived from joints with cranial cruciate ligament rupture and medial patella luxation in dogs. Res. Vet. Sci. 114, 370–377 (2017).
Funding
The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The study represents the MVSc research work of Author 1 who did the research and compilation of data. Author 2 is the surgeon for all the cases, Author 3 is the histologist and Author 4 is the radiologist for the cases. All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Palkhi Sharma and all authors commented on the previous versions of the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethics approval
All procedures were performed on client-owned dogs presented for clinical care at the Teaching Veterinary Clinical Complex, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, India, with informed owner consent obtained prior to surgical management. The research protocol was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC) of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, India, and subsequently approved by the Committee for the Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CCSEA), Delhi (Approval number: (GADVASU/2024/IAEC/71/05).
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Sharma, P., Anand, A., Pathak, D. et al. Stifle joint alterations in dogs with patellar luxation. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-44207-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-44207-y
