Description
The extent of rotatory knee instability subsequent to partial injury of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) has a significant influence on the treatment. However, quantification of rotatory knee instability is difficult. A potential possibility could be the measurement of the static tibial subluxation (TS) in relation to the femur on MRI. Therefore, aim of the study was to compare static subluxation in patients with complete ACL injury, partial ACL injury and intact ACL. The MRI measurement showed that tibial static subluxation is increased in patients with partial anterior cruciate ligament injury compared to patients with intact ACL. In conclusion the MRI measurement of TS could help differentiate between intact-ACL and partial ACL injury. Therefore, measurement of TS could be used as an adjunct to dynamic examination to assess knee instability. In particular, medial subluxation measured on MRI may help to identify patients with p-ACL-I with significant instability. However, cut-off values should be determined in further studies.
