Methods Used for the Assessment of Knee Joint Arthrokinematics: A Review of Literature

The present study provides an analysis of methods in assessment and measurement of knee arthrokinematic movements.

in this study, an exhaustive review of the methods for assessment of knee joint arthrokinematics is provided. For this, some known databases including Science Direct, PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Google Scholar, for the period 1985 to February 2020 are explored.

After the assessment steps, 14 articles were chosen based on the criteria and objectives of the research; 13 articles in entirety and one as a summary. Through a review of the studies, it was observed that various methods were used in assessment and measurement of the knee joint arthrokinematic movements. In the beginning, focus was on transitional motion in which knee arthrokinematic movements were studied in static state; but with time, knee transitional movement was studied in dynamic state as well. More recent studies scrutinized three main types of arthrokinematics: motion rolling, gliding and spinning. There were also studies that tried to implement tools which required minimum cost and scrutinized the knee arthrokinematic movements without complicated state-of-the-art equipment. All the said equipment were designed with the aim of diagnosis of how the arthrokinematic movements of an injured knee compared to a healthy one.

Results of our analysis show that the literature is rich with a variety of instruments for measuring knee arthrokinematic movements. By classifying the instruments, it was found that studies of four different measurement methods including static, dynamic, functional and qualitative have examined the arthrokinematic movements of the knee.