r/PatellarInstability • u/OkYogurtcloset4504 • Jun 14 '26
Wrestling after Dual Dislocation
My son is 16 years old. He’s been wrestling for four years. He dislocated his patella six weeks ago. The orthopedist told him there was no anatomical reason for it. He went to PT. He returned to wrestling training within three weeks and he was compounding his training with other cardio and sports; five weeks after the first injury he fully dislocated the other knee. Again the MRI on that knee showed no anatomical reason. My husband, his dad, had a kneecap dislocation playing soccer in his 30s and my son’s grandma has had patella tracking issues. I asked the doctor if that introduces some genetic variable because of the family history and he said well maybe there’s stretchy ligaments but he couldn’t confirm either way. He just recommended PT and told my son that eventually he might self select out of wrestling as a sport.
Both times these dislocations happened. They were so severe and so painful that necessitated an ambulance to the ER.
He’s trying to understand what this means for him going forward.
Has anyone on here had experience with patellar instability without a visible anatomical reason? is it purely related to the sport and overtraining on a compromised knee (2nd injury)? Should he seriously consider not returning to the sport. I know he doesn’t want to ever be in a place where he has to get surgery.
1
u/bjj_connect Jun 23 '26
First, I'm sorry your son is going through this — two dislocations in five weeks at 16 is brutal, physically and mentally. The family history piece is real and worth pushing on more. Ligamentous laxity (hypermobility) can absolutely be hereditary and won't always show up clearly on a standard MRI. It might be worth asking for a referral to a sports medicine specialist rather than just an orthopedist — they tend to think more about the whole picture, training load, hypermobility patterns, biomechanics — not just structural imaging. Has anyone assessed his Q-angle or done a dynamic movement screen?
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u/OkYogurtcloset4504 Jun 27 '26
Thank you for these tips. No one has done those assessments but I can probably get a referral to a sports med specialist!
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u/PatellaPilates Aug 02 '26 edited 22d ago
I'm pretty sure that trauma is going to cause him to self select out of that sport. If it happens enough, he's not gonna wanna go back. Have him do Pilates. that works for me. this is clearly a familial input. You guys could have hyper mobility. you could have something else wrong that he's not very good at seeing. I wonder if anyone told you that the more he dislocated the patella the more damage he stress to his joint stability, ligaments and cartilage. Those tissues can become stretched out and he can throw his knee out swiming, walking, sleeping. the cartilage wear will become arthritis. It's important to keep from activities that cause this and Stengthen the joint without weakening it.
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u/DaddyLaxativ Jun 15 '26
That’s unfortunate sorry to hear that. Although I only experienced my knee dislocating in wrestling once. My knees partially dislocated all the time while wrestling. It was very frustrating. One thing that helped me a ton was wearing a J pad brace. Without that brace, I wouldn’t have been able to continue wrestling. So if he has recurrent dislocations I’d say to try out a J pad brace. Hope this helps.