Malformed patellas I first remember my knees dislocating when I was six years old, although I had no idea what had happened to them and they re-located straight after they had popped out. When I reached 11 years old, my left knee started dislocating as much as once every two weeks. Because of the rate it was dislocating and the risk of arthritis, I underwent a soft tissue operation to tighten the ligaments. This was extremely painful but has been very succesful. My left knee hasn't dislocated for 13 years and is absolutely trouble free (apart from being numb- the feeling at the front of my knee never returned!). My right (un-operated) knee still unfortunately dislocates every two years or so and because my muscles are quite strong, I can't re-locate it myself (usually, paramedics have to be called). The last time it popped out, I was waitressing at a wedding reception. I banged my foot on a woman's chair as I was serving her wine and fell to the floor screaming, much to everyone's shock!! It also popped out during a rock festival while I was crowd surfing and someone grabbed hold of it!! I am now a keen rock climber and since I have been climbing (two years) my knee hasn't dislocated. For a problem like mine, where the patella is malformed, building up strength in the surrounding ligaments has been an important preventative measure. I still worry about it popping out when I am climbing and (as much as I would love to head off to remote and unexplored mountains) realise that I have to stick to obvious routes when I'm outdoors. I spend most of my time training on indoor climbing walls as I know that if something does go wrong, I can get help quickly! I would love to be able to find a support brace that is light weight and that would give me the confidence to try some more advanced climbing routes! If anybody has any information on anything that might help I would love to hear from you. Also, if anybody knows of any exercises that would strengthen the ligaments surrounding the patella I would be extremely grateful if you could pass these on! Thanks in advance, Aline From: Aline_Freestone@hotmail.com Story Categories UPDATED STORIES CATEGORIES   Apr. 15 441 ACL injury/reconstruction Mar. 23 19 Anterior knee pain syndrome Jan. 18 78 Arthroscopy Jul. 17 24 Autologous Chondrocyte ... Apr. 26 8 Bursitis May. 23 84 Cartilage problems Oct. 20 99 Chondromalacia Patellae Mar. 15 30 Chronic Swelling Dec. 10 22 Depression due to inactivity Apr. 12 63 Dislocation Feb. 11 20 Iliotibial Band Syndrome Sep. 03 162 Knee Injury Jan. 04 270 Knee pain Nov. 22 201 Knee Replacement ... Mar. 27 142 Knee surgery Jan. 05 28 Ligament damage Aug. 27 159 Meniscus injury/repair Apr. 03 29 Microfracture Mar. 09 65 Osgood Schlatter Disease Mar. 31 23 Osteoarthritis Nov. 28 59 Osteochondritis Dessicans Apr. 08 107 Other May. 11 106 Patella-Femoral Syndrome Jan. 12 33 Rehabilitation/Treatment May. 24 11 Rheumatoid Arthritis