Reliability of measuring anterior laxity of the knee joint using a knee ligament arthrometer.
The purpose of this study was to determine examiner reliability with the use of a knee ligament arthrometer to measure the anterior-posterior (A-P) laxity of the right knee. Two clinicians performed an A-P laxity measurement on 43 healthy, male subjects. The first examiner positioned the arthrometer, recorded the subject's A-P laxity, removed the instrument, and repeated the measurement. A second examiner performed the same procedure. Subsequently, we computed interexaminer, intraexaminer, and intraclass reliability coefficients. Our results indicated relatively high reliability coefficients. We believe a clinician can use the knee ligament arthrometer to obtain objective and reliable measurements of A-P laxity of the knee.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007593:Joint Instability / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000502:physiology*; D008023:Ligaments, Articular / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000295:instrumentation*