Patellofemoral osteoarthritis is common clinically and often independent of tibiofemoral disease. Intriguingly, the patella demonstrates more severe degeneration earlier in the disease process compared with the juxtaposed femoral groove. Here, we consider three hypotheses influencing this disparity and thus discover crucial insights into the etiology of osteoarthritis.

The accurate assessment of compartmental involvement in degenerative arthritis of the knee is important when planning operative treatment. Standard radiographic techniques often fail to define the degree of involvement of the less affected tibiofemoral compartment. The use of stress radiography in the preoperative assessment of 30 knees with degenerative arthritis is described and the radiograp...

eventy-three knees which had undergone patellectomy for patello-femoral osteoarthritis are reviewed. A possible mechanism of involvement of the tibiofemoral joint is described. Patellectomy, when the disease is confined to the patello-femoral articulation, appears to be beneficial over a 5-year period. When arthritic changes are present in the tibio-femoral joint, patellectomy may be beneficial...

Methods: Two hundred two patients with knee osteoarthritis (using American College of Rheumatology criteria) were randomized to receive oral glucosamine sulfate, 1500 mg once a day, or placebo. Changes in radiographic minimum joint space width were measured in the medial compartment of the tibiofemoral joint, and symptoms were assessed using the algo-functional indexes of Lequesne and WOMAC (We...

The relationship between meniscal tearing and degenerative joint disease was studied by macroscopic examination of 115 knees at necropsy. The incidence of meniscal pathology was 57 per cent. There was no overall difference in the severity and distribution of tibiofemoral degeneration, whether the meniscus was torn or normal. We found little evidence that degenerative meniscal tears cause osteoa...

BACKGROUND: Lower extremity alignment may influence the load distribution at the knee, potentially predisposing the anterior cruciate ligament to greater stress. We examined whether lower extremity alignment predicted the magnitude of anterior knee laxity in men and women. HYPOTHESIS: Greater anterior pelvic angle, hip anteversion, tibiofemoral angle, genu recurvatum, and navicular drop will pr...

BACKGROUND Challenges in accurate, in vivo quantification of multi-planar knee kinematics and relevant timing sequence during high-risk injurious tasks pose challenges in understanding the relative contributions of joint loads in non-contact injury mechanisms. Biomechanical testing on human cadaveric tissue, if properly designed, offers a practical means to evaluate joint biomechanics and injur...

BACKGROUND Medial meniscus root tear (MMRT) is a recently recognized yet frequently missed meniscal tear pattern that biomechanically creates an environment approaching meniscal deficiency. HYPOTHESIS/PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of MMRT on tibiofemoral kinematics and arthrokinematics during daily activities by comparing the injured knees of subjects with isolate...

BACKGROUND Osteoarthritis has a high prevalence in people with high bone mineral density (BMD). Nevertheless, whether high systemic BMD predates early structural features of knee osteoarthritis is unclear. This study examined the association between systemic BMD and knee cartilage defect progression and cartilage volume loss in middle-aged people without clinical knee disease. METHODS Adults ...

OBJECTIVES To analyse the association between chondrocalcinosis and osteoarthritis (OA) of the hands and knees in an unselected elderly rural population. METHODS A community based cross sectional study was performed in individuals randomly selected from a previous epidemiological survey on the prevalence of chondrocalcinosis in people older than 60 years from Osona county, Catalonia, northeas...