Distal femoral rotational axes in Indian knees.

PURPOSE

To measure the angular relationships of distal femoral rotational axes in 100 normal Indian knees.

METHODS

42 men and 8 women aged 26 to 40 (mean, 31) years, with 100 normal non-arthritic knees were recruited. Anatomic landmarks were measured using computed tomography. They included the posterior condylar axis, the transepicondylar axis, the anteroposterior axis (Whiteside's line), the posterior condylar angle (PCA), the Whiteside-epicondylar angle (W-EP), and the Whiteside-posterior condylar angle (W-PC).

RESULTS

The mean PCA, W-EP, and W-PC were 5, 90.8, and 95.8 degrees, respectively. The mean femorotibial alignment was 179.6 degrees. The differences between the left and right sides were significant only for the WEP and W-PC. Only the PCA and W-EP were weakly correlated (r=0.338, p=0.001).

CONCLUSION

There are differences in distal femoral rotational axes among Indian, Caucasian, and Japanese knees. Our data can be used to evaluate changes in those axes in ageing or arthritic patients.