Prediction of Internal Contact Forces at the Knee From External Measurements Available to Purchase

As the baby boomer generation ages, knee osteoarthritis (OA) will become increasingly prevalent in our society. Articular cartilage damage in the knee is highly dependent upon subject-specific kinematics and load distribution inside the joint. In particular, researchers have hypothesized that overloading of the medial compartment is a primary contributing factor to the development of the disease [1]. However, since medial compartment load cannot be measured non-invasively in vivo, researchers typically use the external knee adduction moment during stance phase as a surrogate measure. This quantity has been correlated with the medial tibial contact force measured from an instrumented knee implant [2] and with the risk of disease progression over time [3].