title: Location of the femoral sulcus in the osteoarthritic knee.
abstract: Morphology of the distal femur is characterized in patients with osteoarthritis to identify an etiology for the high incidence of patellar till, subluxation, and failure noted in total knee arthroplasty. This study demonstrates that the sulcus of the trochlear groove is not located in the midline as traditionally represented, but is lateral to the midline in both osteoarthritic and normal knees. The significance of this is that the patella will presumably track lateral to the midline unless surgically realigned, contributing to the prevalence of patellar tracking problems associated with symmetric femoral components with centralized sulci used in contemporary total knee arthroplasty.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, University of Colorado Health Sciences, Denver 80262, USA.
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Eckhoff
authors.forename: W K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Montgomery
authors.forename: E R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Stamm
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Kilcoyne
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D007720:Knee Prosthesis; D008297:Male; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D010329:Patella / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000517:prevention & control; D011475:Prosthesis Failure; D012016:Reference Values; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed