Biomechanical Analysis of the Knee

Biomechanics of the knee describes the function of the knee joint in terms of its mechanical components. This description becomes vitally important in trying to understand the behavior of the joint when some inherent disorder exists within the joint. It is equally important to understand the mechanical functioning of the knee when attempting to rehabilitate patients with disorders of the knee after trauma or surgery. Some articles have attempted to describe the biomechanics of the knee in terms of a set of external measurements that allow prediction of the loads carried in the knee joint and the influences of various ligaments and musculotendinous units on the behavior of this joint.1–4 Because of the complexity and overlapping of function of the ligamentous and musculotendinous units around the joint, plus the inadequacy of testing the various functions on cadavers' knees, these conventional methods of analysis are not reliable.…