Effect of perturbing a simulated motion on knee and anterior cruciate ligament kinetics.

Current surgical treatments for common knee injuries do not restore the normal biomechanics. Among other factors, the abnormal biomechanics increases the susceptibility to the early onset of osteoarthritis. In pursuit of improving long term outcome, investigators must understand normal knee kinematics and corresponding joint and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) kinetics during the activities of daily living. Our long term research goal is to measure in vivo joint motions for the ovine stifle model and later simulate these motions with a 6 degree of freedom (DOF) robot to measure the corresponding 3D kinetics of the knee and ACL-only joint. Unfortunately, the motion measurement and motion simulation technologies used for our project have associated errors. The objective of this study was to determine how motion measurement and motion recreation error affect knee and ACL-only joint kinetics by perturbing a simulated in vivo motion in each DOF and measuring the corresponding intact knee and ACL-only joint forces and moments. The normal starting position for the motion was perturbed in each degree of freedom by four levels (-0.50, -0.25, 0.25, and 0.50 mm or degrees). Only translational perturbations significantly affected the intact knee and ACL-only joint kinetics. The compression-distraction perturbation had the largest effect on intact knee forces and the anterior-posterior perturbation had the largest effect on the ACL forces. Small translational perturbations can significantly alter intact knee and ACL-only joint forces. Thus, translational motion measurement errors must be reduced to provide a more accurate representation of the intact knee and ACL kinetics. To account for the remaining motion measurement and recreation errors, an envelope of forces and moments should be reported. These force and moment ranges will provide valuable functional tissue engineering parameters (FTEPs) that can be used to design more effective ACL treatments.