This study measured the the 6 degrees of freedom knee kinematics of patients with anterior cruciate ligament deficiency. It was found that anterior cruciate ligament deficiency caused a statistically significant anterior shift and internal rotation of the tibia at low flexion angles as would be expected. However, ligament deficiency also caused a medial translation of the tibia between 15° and 90° of flexion. The medial shift of the tibia after anterior cruciate ligament deficiency might alter contact stress distributions in the tibiofemoral cartilage near the medial tibial spine. These findings correlate with the observation that osteoarthritis in patients with anterior cruciate ligament injuries is likely to occur in this region and indicate a need for future anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction techniques to reproduce not only anterior stability but also medial-lateral stability.
The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 2006, 34:1240-1246