BACKGROUND Nonoperative treatment of posterolateral knee injuries tends to yield poor results. In patients with chronic posterolateral knee injuries, failure to correct genu varus alignment will often result in failure of the posterolateral knee repair or reconstruction. PURPOSE To prospectively assess the functional outcomes of patients with combined grade 3 posterolateral instability and ge...

BACKGROUND Cartilage morphometry based on magnetic resonance images (MRIs) is an emerging outcome measure for clinical trials among patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). However, current methods for cartilage morphometry take many hours per knee and require extensive training on the use of the associated software. In this study we tested the feasibility, reliability, and construct validity o...

Our study evaluated the accuracy of an image-guided total knee replacement system based on CT with regard to preparation of the femoral and tibial bone using nine limbs from five cadavers. The accuracy was assessed by direct measurement using an extramedullary alignment rod without radiographs. The mean angular errors of the femur and tibia, which represent angular gaps from the real mechanical...

Varus malalignment after total knee replacement is associated with a poor outcome. Our aim was to determine whether the same was true for medial unicompartmental knee replacement (UKR). The anatomical leg alignment was measured prospectively using a long-arm goniometer in 160 knees with an Oxford UKR. Patients were then grouped according to their mechanical leg alignment as neutral (5 degrees t...

High tibial osteotomy (HTO) is a surgical procedure to re-align varus or valgus mal-alignment of the knee. Medial opening wedge HTO is a surgical treatment of choice for knee varus mal-alignment with many advantages over lateral closing wedge HTO. However, the opening of the medial wedge alters the plane of the lateral tibial plateau, especially when the correction angle is large, which may be ...

INTRODUCTION A successful total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is dependent on many factors, but component alignment is particularly critical. Aligning the femoral component parallel to the transepicondylar axis is generally regarded as the optimal rotational position, since it has been shown to produce a balanced joint, optimize patellar tracking, and minimize patellofemoral shear forces [1,2] the fe...

Background This study was designed as an investigation in a local population to assess the relation between the knee joint and spinal alignment in a population-based study using the SpinalMouse. Methods Medical check-ups were conducted for residents of a mountain village in Japan. The study population included 107 men and 157 women (528 knees) with a mean age of 71.1 ± 6.8 years (range, 60-87...

BACKGROUND To examine the association of radiographic frontal plane knee alignment with three-dimensional foot posture in patients with medial knee osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS Participants in orthopedic clinics with Kellgren/Lawrence (K/L) grade ≥1 (88 patients and 88 knees; age, 61-91 years; 65.9% female) were enrolled. An anteroposterior radiographic view was used to assess the anatomical ...

PURPOSE We devised an intraoperatively identifiable mechanical axis (IIMA) as a reference of alignment in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). MATERIALS AND METHODS Between February 2010 and January 2011, primary TKAs were consecutively performed on 672 patients (1007 knees) using an IIMA as a reference in the coronal plane. RESULTS The alignment of the lower extremity improved from a mean of 11....

BACKGROUND Most previous studies on hallux valgus focused on the possible relationship between this deformity and muscles and/or ligaments in the foot and lower leg. Very little is known about the relationship between hallux valgus and alignment of the proximal joints. The aims of the present study were to determine the extent to which lower extremity alignment characteristics of the hip, knee,...