Reliability of measuring anterior laxity of the knee joint using a knee ligament arthrometer

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine examiner reliability with the use of a knee ligament arthrometer to measure the anterior-posterior (A-P) laxity of the right knee. Two clinicians performed an A-P laxity measurement on 43 healthy, male subjects. The first examiner positioned the arthrometer, recorded the subject's A-P laxity, removed the instrument, and repeated the measurement. A second examiner performed the same procedure. Subsequently, we computed interexaminer, intraexaminer, and intraclass reliability coefficients. Our results indicated relatively high reliability coefficients. We believe a clinician can use the knee ligament arthrometer to obtain objective and reliable measurements of A-P laxity of the knee.