ArticleKnee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA2021
The sagittal geometry of the trochlear groove could be described as a circle: an intraoperative assessment with navigation.
Article in Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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5 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Landmarks to guide femoral insertion in lateral patellofemoral ligament reconstruction: An in vivo assessment of isometry.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2025Article
- Effects of a novel externally rotated trochlear design on patellofemoral kinematics in total knee arthroplasty: A cadaveric study.Journal of experimental orthopaedics · 2025Article
- Reproducibility of a new device for robotic-assisted TKA surgery.Journal of experimental orthopaedics · 2025Article
- Intraoperative Patellofemoral Kinematic Acquisition: The Design, Testing, and Validation of a Setup for Clinical Studies.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Mismatch between trochlear coronal alignment of arthritic knees and currently available prosthesis: a morphological analysis of 4116 knees and 45 implant designs.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe aim of this study was to describe the sagittal geometry of the trochlear groove in patients who underwent primary TKA, based on intraoperative data acquired with a navigation system.
methodsIntraoperative navigation data were collected from 110 patients. All operations were guided by a non-image-based navigation system (BLU-IGS, Orthokey Italia Srl). The trochlear groove has been described on the three anatomical planes; in particular, on the sagittal plane the hypothesis has been verified that the acquired points are referable to a circle. Using the data collected during intraoperative navigation, possible correlation between the radius of the trochlear groove and other femur dimension (length, AP dimension) was analyzed; the orientation of the trochlear sulcus with respect to the mechanical axis and the posterior condyle axis was analyzed too, searching for possible correlation between groove alignment (frontal and axial) or groove radius and the hip-knee-ankle (HKA).
resultsThe average radius of curvature of the femoral trochlea was 25.5 ± 5.6 mm; the difference was not statistically significant between the men and women (n.s. p value). No correlation was found between the trochlear groove radius and the femur length (r = - 0.02) or the HKA-phenotypes (r = 0.03) and between the groove alignment and HKA-phenotypes. On axial plane, the trochlear groove was 3.2° ± 4.3° externally rotated, with respect to the posterior condylar axis; on frontal plane, the trochlear groove was 3.9° ± 5.3° externally rotated, with respect to the mechanical axis. In both cases, no statistically significant differences were found between male and female and between left and right limb (p > 0.05).
conclusionThe present study shows that the sagittal plane geometry of the femoral trochlea in patients affected by osteoarthritis could be described accurately as a circle. The acquisition of the trochlear morphology intraoperatively can lead to more anatomically shape definition, to investigate deeper its radius of curvature and geometry. Trochlear shape could be used as landmarks for femoral component positioning, thus customizing the implant design, optimize the outcomes and improving anterior knee pain after TKA. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV.
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