Authors: Michael Bohnsack Felix Meier Gerhard Franz Walter Christof Hurschler Stephan Schmolke Carl Joachim Wirth Oliver Rühmann
Publish Date: 2005/11/15
Volume: 125, Issue: 9, Pages: 592-597
Abstract
The infrapatellar fat pad of the knee was resected from 21 patients 4 male 17 female mean age 69 years during the course of standard total knee arthroplasty operations performed in our clinic The fat pad was dissected into five standardized segments fixed in formalin and embedded in paraffin Immunohistochemical techniques using antibodies against S100 protein and substanceP SP were employed to determine and specify the nervesStudying all the detectable nerves present in 50 observation fields 200fold magnification we found an average of 106 S100 versus 25 SP nerves 24 in the synovium and 27 S100 versus 7 SP nerves 26 in the interior of the fat pad The total nerve count was significantly P 0001 higher in the synovium than in the fat pad for both marker types The number of S100 nerves was significantly P 005 higher in the central and lateral segments of the fat pad while SP nerves were equally distributed throughout all segments of the fatpad SP nerves were significantly more frequently associated with blood vessels inside the fat pad 43 P 005 than in the synovial tissue 28The occurrence and distribution of SP nerves inside the infrapatellar fat pad suggest a nociceptive function and a neurohistological role in anterior knee pain syndrome The data support the hypothesis that a neurogenous infection of the infrapatellar fat pad could contribute to anterior knee pain syndrome
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