The influence of superficial tissue on response of the primate knee to traumatic posterior tibial drawer.
The posterior cruciate ligaments is the primary restraint against large posterior displacement of the tibia in the isolated knee joint. However, muscle tone and superficial tissue may contribute to stability of the knee at traumatic levels of posterior tibial drawer. The influence of these parameters on joint resistance was studied for the knee flexed at 90 degrees. Experiments were conducted on an anesthetized primate with resting and tensed extensor muscles. Experiments were also conducted on postmortem and isolated knee joints. The experiments show that anteriorly-oriented superficial tissue contributes significantly to the stiffness and strength of the knee. Contraction of extensor muscles can increase the strength of the flexed knee by more than 50%. In posterior drawer, data from the isolated knee joint provides a lower bound on the actual strength of the living knee.
D000818:Animals; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D010215:Papio