Author: Francesca Bucci
Bucci, Francesca, 2023 Inter-Subject Variability Of The Healthy Tibiofemoral Function, Flinders University, College of Science and Engineering
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Knee ligament injuries and diseases, i.e., osteoarthritis, are a major global health burden. There is a lack of baseline information concerning tibiofemoral function and ligament mechanics across populations, thereby affecting surgical procedure outcomes in restoring the individual knee function.
Thus, the overall thesis objective was assessing inter-subject variability of healthy tibiofemoral joint function, by (1) developing a novel ex-vivo experimental assessment to quantify the unloaded knee passive motion envelope, (2) quantifying variability and sex-based differences of the envelope in a cohort of thirty intact knee specimens representing healthy adults, and (3) developing a time-efficient musculoskeletal model providing tibiofemoral elastic response of individual tibiofemoral joint through compliance matrices.
Thesis results included inter-subject and sex-specific variability of medial and lateral extremes of the unloaded knee passive motion envelope. Results displayed a moderately sex-specific passive motion, but significantly higher individual variability, suggesting that knee interventions should focus on personalised, rather than sex-specific solutions.
Keywords: Tibiofemoral Function Variability, Unloaded Knee Passive Motion Envelope, Influence of Sex, Knee Compliance Matrices, Computationally Efficient Musculoskeletal Modelling, Passive And Active Ligaments Role
Subject: Medicine thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2023
School: College of Science and Engineering
Supervisor: Mark Taylor