LINES OF ACTION AND MOMENT ARMS OF THE MAJOR FORCE-BEARING STRUCTURESCROSSING THE HUMAN KNEE-JOINT - COMPARISON BETWEEN THEORY AND EXPERIMENT

Lines of action and moment arms in the sagittal plane of the major ten sion-bearing structures at the knee joint were calculated using an ana tomy-based mathematical model and compared with experimental measureme nts reported by Herzog & Read (1993). The mobility of the model tibiof emoral joint was controlled by a sagittal plane 4-bar linkage consisti ng of the femur, tibia and the 2 cruciate ligaments while the knee ext ensor mechanism was characterised by a patellofemoral joint model. Mod el parameters were obtained from previous cadaveric and MRI studies. T he theoretical results compare well with the published experimental me asurements which suggests that, with relatively simple measurements, t he model was able to reproduce major features of the natural knee join t and provide necessary information for further mechanical analysis.