A study on the function of the knee muscles in genu varum and genu valgum

Genu varum and genu valgum are two most common deformities of the knee joint in children and adults. In these deformities knee muscles function maybe affected by the alteration in mechanical axis of lower limb. The aim of this survey was to provide some basic knowledge about the function of knee muscles in patients with genu varum and genu valgum deformities.

Studies were identified by searching in the Pub-Med، Science Direct، Google Scholar databases and authoritative references available on the internet and library for articles and books published after 1990،with the key words such as genu varum، genu valgum، knee muscles، bow leg، knock knee and knee frontal angle.

Among 102 papers and 10 books resulted from the first search، only 30 papers and 5 books were related to this literature review and just10 papers and 2 books among them were about changes in knee muscles.

The results of this survey indicated that patients with genu varum and genu valgum deformities have architectural and functional alteration in their knee muscles. According to the results most of these studies have noticed the basic changes in quadriceps muscle function and architecture. It is necessary to study more about the function of other knee muscles.