A Preliminary Study On The Morphology Of Posterior Femoral Condyle After Anterolateral Ligament Injury

Objective: To analyze the relationship between the morphological features of femoral posterior condyle quantitatively described by CT images and the anterior lateral ligament(ALL)injury of knee joints evaluated by MRI images.Methods: 41 knees from the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University with acute ALL injuries were retrospectively selected as the injury group,and 41 knee joints were matched as the control group.All subjects had complete imaging data of knee joints,and their CT images were used to quantitatively measure the morphological parameters of knee joints of two groups,including the medial-lateral width of epicondyle(MLW),the medial posterior condyle width(MPCW),and the lateral posterior condyle width(LPCW),the lateral condyle length(LCL),the medial condyle length(MCL),the lateral posterior condyle length(LPCL),and the medial posterior condyle length(MPCL),the medial posterior condyle height(MPCH),and the lateral posterior condyle height(LPCH).In addition,the ratio of posterior condyle width(LPCW/MLW,MPCW/MLW)and length(LPCL/LCL,MPCL/MCL)was calculated to minimize individual differences.Analyze the statistical differences of parameters between two groups.The intra-class correlation coefficient(ICC)was used to evaluate the consistency between the measured values.Results: The consistency among all measured values was strong(ICC> 0.80).The differences in width and length of posterior condyle between two groups were statistically significant(P <0.05).(1)width: MLW was greater in ALL injury group than the control group(P = 0.042),LPCW/MLW and MPCW/MLW were significantly lower than the control group(P <0.05);(2)Length: MCL,MPCL and LCL were Larger in ALL injury group than the control group(P <0.05),LPCL/LCL was lower than the control group(P <0.001);(3)Height: There was no statistical difference between the height of the medial and lateral posterior condyles(P >0.05).Conclusion: The medial posterior femoral condyle of ALL injury group was narrower,and the lateral femoral posterior condyle was narrower and shorter compared with the control group.ALL injury was associated with the morphological characteristics of posterior femoral condyle,shorter lateral posterior condyle may increase the risk of ALL injury by changing the internal motion of knee joints.