Multipartite patella

Last revised by Rohit Sharma ◉ on 15 Sep 2024

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Niknejad M, Sharma R, Ahmed H, et al. Multipartite patella. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 20 Mar 2025) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-20885

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-20885

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/20885?embed_domain=hackmd.io%252525252F%2525252540yIPUAFeCSL2JsU8smR5nJQ%252525252Fbnjhjgjghjghjgh

rID:

20885

Article created:

18 Dec 2012, Mohammad Taghi Niknejad ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Mohammad Taghi Niknejad had no recorded disclosures.

View Mohammad Taghi Niknejad's current disclosures

Last revised:

15 Sep 2024, Rohit Sharma ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Rohit Sharma had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Rohit Sharma's current disclosures

Revisions:

18 times, by 12 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Musculoskeletal

Sections:

Anatomy

Tags:

patella, multipartite patella, normal variant, bones

Synonyms:

Tripartite patella

Multipartite patella is an uncommon congenital abnormality that represents normal variant pathology and is a result of a failure of ossification during development. It is most commonly diagnosed as an incidental finding.

Segmentation of the patella occurs when there is a failure of fusion of the ossification centers in early childhood. The most common type of segmentation results in the separation of the upper outer quadrant which is called bipartite patella. More rarely, there may be a third segment resulting in a tripartite patella.

Classification

These are often incidental radiographic findings that have been classified into three types - the Saupe classification ¹:

type I: at the inferior pole (5% of all lesions)
type II: at the lateral patellar margin (20%)
type III: at the superolateral pole (75%)

Thus, by far the commonest location of segmentation anomalies in the patella occurs at the superolateral border.

Associations

dorsal defect of patella³

Differential diagnosis

It is important to distinguish the multipartite patella from a patellar fracture in a symptomatic patient. If patellar fragmentation involves portions of the patella other than the upper and lower outer quadrants, then traumatic fracture should be considered.