Experimental And Clinical Study On Rotational Alignment Of Femoral Components In Total Knee Arthroplasty

Rotational alignment of femoral components is an important surgery technique which can be neglected in total knee arthroplasty. It will induce patellofemoral complications and malrotational alignment between tibial and femoral components and flexional unstabiltiy if it be done appropriately. Studies revealed that the anatomy of distal femur of Asians is different with that of Euro-Americans. So far, there has been no study on deciding the rotational alignment technique of femoral components for the Chinese. Therefor, we did a series of experimental and clinical studies in this area. The results show that the transepicondylar axis seems to be more reliable than the Whiteside's line and that the posterior femoral condylar angle of the Chinese is larger than that of the Western. Landmarks of each bone are the intrinsic cause of the rotational mismatch in total knee arthroplasty. The clinical epicondylar axis can be chosen as the optimal reference to decide the rotational alignment of femoral component. Rotational alignment of femoral component has a great influence on patellofemoral contact forces and patella tracking in total knee arthroplasty. It's reliable for surgeons to choose the transepicondylar axis as the reference axis to rotate femoral components so as to decrease the rate of lateral retinacular release.