Development of three dimensional evaluation system for patello-femoral alignment

摘要

Introduction: Since patello-femoral (PF) joint is a crucial mechanism to amplify the force of the quadriceps muscle, it is necessary to evaluate the alignment of it including the quadriceps muscle. We devised au evaluation system for PF alignment using MRI, considering the direction of the quadriceps muscle(l) and found that the extent of lateralization of the tibial tuberosity is useful. Our evaluation system for PF alignment may be applicable for prediction of postoperative patella subluxation after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). We introduce our evaluation system. The control group consisits of 17 healthy subjects (34 knees) with the average age of 29 years (SD 9 years). The 18 knees of 15 patients with patella dislocation, a 16 years old patient with permanent subluxation of the patella and a 16 years old patient with osteochondritis dissecans of the PF joint (PF disorder group) were analysed as representative of mal-alignment group. Their average age was 19 years (SD 5 years). In addition the 20 knees of 11 patients before TKA (TKA group) was investigated for evaluation of post operative subluxation of the patella.