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Biomechanics of the knee joint

par Innocenti, Bernardo
Référence Human Orthopaedic Biomechanics: Fundamentals, Devices and Applications, Elsevier, page (239-263)
Publication Publié, 2022-01

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Résumé :

The knee joint is the largest and one of the most complex joints in the human body. It is positioned between the hip and ankle joints, and this position makes it highly vulnerable to damage due to the high moments that can be generated by the two long lever arms (femur and tibia) of the adjacent joints. It is, therefore, not surprising that this joint is one of the most frequently damaged, not only in terms of bone fracture but also in terms of soft tissue injuries (ligaments and cartilage). Although the knee joint is a single structure, from a practical point of view, it can be considered being composed of two main joints: the tibio-femoral joint, which is the joint between the distal femur and the proximal tibial, and the patello-femoral joint, which is the joint between the posterior part of the patella and the femoral trochlear groove. However, from a biomechanical and functional point of view, it is more appropriate to consider the knee joint being composed of three joints, further subdividing the tibio-femoral joint into the medial and lateral tibio-femoral joints characterized by different shapes, different kinematics, and different relative kinetics. Overall, the kinematics of the knee is a complex three-dimensional roto-translational motion that is strongly related to the patient’s anatomy. In particular, the shape of the femoral condyles, the tibial plateau, and the patellar bone, and the morphological and mechanical properties and position of the soft tissue envelope are critical to producing this motion. For these reasons, knee kinetics and kinematics vary from individual to individual.