The patella, the largest human sesamoid bone, lies within and is important functional component of the knee extensor mechanism, So the treatment of patellar fracture is considered very important.

In this series, we experiened 24 cases of ptellar fractures treated with modified tension band wiring and circumferential wiring from Jan. 1987 to Dec. 1992 at the department of orthopaedic surgery, Seoul Adventist Hospital.

The Results were as follows;

1. The mean fracture healing peroid was 9.6 weeks in cases of modified tension band wiring and 12.4 weeks in circumferential wiring.

2. circumferential wiring is a good method for severe comminuted, small fragmented fracture and modified tension band wiring is for displaced transeverse fracture and large fragmented comminuted feacture.