Determination of knee joint line in relation to bony landmarks: a CT study in Turkish population

Objectives: Evaluation of the knee joint line is important in terms of clinical outcomes in lower extremity alignment surgeries. Since there are a limited number of studies examining the relationship between the normal knee joint line and the bony landmarks around the knee in Turkish society, we evaluated the relationship between the knee joint line and the bone landmarks in the Turkish population. Methods: Knee CT images of 100 patients (50 females, 50 males) aged between 18−50 years were retrospectively evaluated. The distance between the joint line and the medial epicondyle, lateral epicondyle, apex of head of fibula, patella lower pole, tuberositas tibia and interepicondylar distance of the femur was evaluated. Results: With the exception of lateral epicondyle/femoral transepicondylar width, tibial tubercle distance/femoral transepicondylar width, tibial width /femoral transepicondylar width, and tibial width/tibial tubercle distance; all ratios differed between the genders with statistical significance (p<0.005). Conclusion: CT evaluation of the knee joint allows making precise measurements in the coronal, axial and sagittal planes. We believe that the values we determined will help surgeons to determine the joint line during total knee replacement and revision knee replacement surgery in Turkish patients.

Keywords:

bony landmarks, femoral interepicondylar width knee, knee joint line,

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