KYON

Many pet owners believe patellar luxation can be managed indefinitely with supplements and rest. This case of a 4-year-old, 5.5 kg male Pomeranian proves the harsh reality of that misconception. Having deferred surgery for over a year at an outside clinic, the dog was brought to Guangzhou Boss Animal Hospital with marked left hindlimb lameness. Physical examination revealed Grade 3 medial patellar luxation accompanied by harsh, bone-on-bone joint crepitus. Radiographs confirmed what my fingers felt: the medial trochlear ridge was flattened, and the articular cartilage was worn down to eburnated subchondral bone. In this end-stage scenario, traditional trochlear deepening is useless—carving into a joint that has no cartilage left only forces the patella to grind on raw bone. To restore smooth mechanics, I performed a Patellar Groove Replacement (PGR) using a Swiss KYON Size 2 prosthesis. Today, the patella tracks flawlessly over the polished artificial sulcus without pain, underscoring my golden rule: native living cartilage is always better than metal, but an engineered prosthesis is infinitely superior to chronic bone-on-bone destruction.