title: Does medio-lateral motion occur in the normal knee? An in-vitro study in passive motion.
abstract: Medio-lateral translation during knee flexion continues to raise controversy. Small population sizes, small joint flexion ranges, less-reliable measurement techniques and disparate experimental conditions led to inconsistent reports in the past. To study this subject with more accurate and reliable measurements, we carried out femur and tibia tracking in 22 intact cadaver knees during passive joint motion using a state-of-the-art surgical navigation system. Trackers with active light-emitting diodes were fixed onto the femur and tibia, and an instrumented pointer was used to digitize a number of anatomical landmarks. International recommendations were adopted for anatomical-based reference frame definitions and joint kinematic analysis. For the first time, knee joint translations were reported in both the femoral and tibial reference frames, and over a flexion/extension arc as large as 140°. During flexion, in the femoral reference frame, the center of the tibial plateau moved 4.8 ± 2.8mm medially when averaged over the specimens. In the tibial frame, the knee center moved 13.3 ± 5.7 mm laterally. The relative femoral-to-tibial medio-lateral translation was, on average over the specimens, nearly 20% of the width of the tibial plateau, and can be as large as 35%. Medio-lateral translation occurs in the natural normal knee joint.
authors.affiliation: Movement Analysis Laboratory, Centro di Ricerca Codivilla-Putti, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Belvedere
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leardini
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Giannini
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ensini
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bianchi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Catani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002102:Cadaver; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007717:Knee / Q000502:physiology*; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009038:Motion; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013977:Tibia / Q000473:pathology*; D013997:Time Factors