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Review
. 2012 Feb;226(2):95-102.
doi: 10.1177/0954411911433372.

Knee joint forces: prediction, measurement, and significance

Darryl D D'Lima  1 , Benjamin J Fregly, Shantanu Patil, Nikolai Steklov, Clifford W Colwell Jr
Affiliations
Review

Knee joint forces: prediction, measurement, and significance

Darryl D D'Lima et al. Proc Inst Mech Eng H. 2012 Feb.

Abstract

Knee forces are highly significant in osteoarthritis and in the survival and function of knee arthroplasty. A large number of studies have attempted to estimate forces around the knee during various activities. Several approaches have been used to relate knee kinematics and external forces to internal joint contact forces, the most popular being inverse dynamics, forward dynamics, and static body analyses. Knee forces have also been measured in vivo after knee arthroplasty, which serves as valuable validation of computational predictions. This review summarizes the results of published studies that measured knee forces for various activities. The efficacy of various methods to alter knee force distribution, such as gait modification, orthotics, walking aids, and custom treadmills are analyzed. Current gaps in our knowledge are identified and directions for future research in this area are outlined.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Walking with a cane in the contralateral hand decreased the average peak adduction moment relative to walking without a cane. Walking with a cane in the ipsilateral hand increased the mean peak adduction moment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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