AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Abstract

Introduction: Injury to the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) typically occurs as a result of serious high-energy trauma. PCL reconstruction surgery is recognized as an important therapy method for such complex injuries. However, it remains unclear whether the PCL reconstructed (PCLR) patients can return to a normal gait pattern. The objective of this study was to assess the kinematics and kinetics of the knee joint in PCLR patients during activities of daily life, aiming to investigate the effect of the operation on the biomechanics and function of the joint 5-10 years after surgery. We hypothesized that the kinematics and the kinetics are not fully restored compared with the contralateral (CL) side and healthy knee joints. Methodology: 34 PCLR patients and 10 healthy subjects underwent gait analysis while walking, stairs ascending and descending in the gait lab. The motion (kinematics) was tracked with a set of 10 infrared cameras, while the external loads (ground reaction forces and moments) were recorded by two 6 degree-of-freedom force plates. Skeletal kinematics was tracked using a functional approach to determine joint centres and axes from the motion data. External loads and kinematics served as input to an inverse dynamics model for determining the intersegmental resultant forces and moments at the knee. Statistical analysis was performed to determine functional differences among the PCLR, CL and the healthy group. Results: The results showed that the reconstructed sides showed reduced knee flexion moment compared with the CL group, the kinematic and kinetic parameters of PCLR knee joints do not appear to show a significant difference compared to the CL knee joints. However, if we compare the parameters between the patients and the healthy subject group, the PCLR and CL group showed significantly reduced knee flexion angles and external rotation angles, while a difference was also observed in knee flexion and external rotation moments. Conclusions: Our results show that although patients exhibit a special gait pattern following PCL reconstruction, the gait pattern is distinctly different to that of healthy controls. The detailed biomechanical analyses suggested that functional deficits do exist in these patients at a medium-term follow-up. The presented study provides unprecedented, quantitative information about the biomechanical function of PCLR patients which could also help to develop a more comprehensive view of the effect of the PCL reconstruction and the impact of surgical techniques in the future. Einleitung: Eine Verletzung des hinteren Kreuzbandes (HKB) tritt typischerweise als Ergebnis des Einwirkens hoher Kräfte auf. Die HKB-Rekonstruktionsoperation wird als wichtige Therapiemethode solcher komplexer Verletzungen anerkannt. Das Ziel dieser Untersuchung ist es den kinematischen und kinetischen Funktionsstatus des Kniegelenks von HKB-rekonstruierten (HKBR) Patienten während Alltagsaktivitäten zu ermitteln, um klinisch relevante Erkenntnisse zur Taxierung der Operationsmethode…