Injury risk functions for the four primary knee ligaments

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop Injury Risk Functions (IRFs) for the Anterior- and Posterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL and PCL, respectively) and the Medial- and Lateral Collateral Ligament (MCL and LCL, respectively) in the knee joint. The IRFs were based on Post-Mortem Human Subject (PMHS) tensile failure strains of either Bone-Ligament-Bone (BLB) or dissected LIGament (LIG) preparations. Due to insufficient sample sizes of the experimental data points available in the current literature, statistically-generated failure strains (virtual values) based on the reported mean- and standard deviation were used to accommodate for the unprovided specimen-specific results. All virtual and specimen-specific values were then categorized into groups of static and dynamic rates, respectively, and tested for the best fitting theoretical distribution to derive a ligament IRF. Ten IRFs were derived (3 for ACL, 2 for PCL, 2 for MCL and 3 for LCL). These IRFs are, to the best of the authors knowledge, the first attempt of knee ligament injury prediction tools based on PMHS data. For future improvements of the knee ligament IRFs, upcoming experiments need comparable testing and strain measurements. More emphasis on a clear definition of failure and transparent reporting of each specimen-specific result is necessary.