Mechanical testing of intra-articular tissues. Relating experiments to physiological function

Summary There is a wealth of data published on the biomechanical properties of intra-articular tissues. However, much of this information is not intuitively applicable to clinical practice due to both methodological disparity between studies and the relevance of the methodology used to test the biomaterial. This inevitably results in comparison difficulties with other experimental data produced for the same tissue, or indeed different tissues. Therefore, this review highlights the salient issues that need to be considered when trying to interpret biomechanical testing scenarios and how they influence clinical practice. As such, different testing protocols and their clinical relevance are scrutinised. The importance of recreating the physiological loading conditions and the interpretation of the functional anatomy are highlighted.