Effects of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Deficiency on the Stress Distribution on Each Part of Knee Meniscus / 中国运动医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To compare the stress distributions on the anterior horn,body part and posterior horn of menisci between the normal and the injured knees with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficiency using the three-dimensional finite element analysis.Methods A three-dimensional finite element model of tibiofemoral joint was created to simulate the motion states of the normal and ACL-deficiency knees at extension,as well as 15° and 30° flexions.Meanwhile,700N axial load and 134N posterior load were applied to the femur.Then,the stress on the anterior horn,body part and posterior horn of medial and lateral menisci were compared between the normal and ACL-deficient knees.Results With ACL deficiency,when stretching the knees straightly,the stress on the anterior horn of medial meniscus increased to 100.7％ of the normal knees,bigger than that of the affected lateral meniscus (30.7％).At 15° and 30° flexions,the stress on the posterior horn of the medial meniscus in ACL-deficiency knees increased by 36.4％ and 59.7％ respectively when compared to normal knees,while the stress on that of the lateral meniscus did not increase significantly.Apart from the stress on the body part of the lateral meniscus increasing by 39.5％ at extension in ACL-deficiency knees,no obvious changes were observed in the stress on the body part of the medial and lateral menisci.Conclusion ACL deficiency has different effect on the stress of different parts of the meniscus.It mainly increases the stress on the anterior horn of the medial meniscus at extension and that of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus at flexion.