[Measuring the looseness of the knee joint by using the Kt 1000 arthrometer]

Authors measured the stability in the sagittal plane of the intact knee joints of 50 young men with the MEDmetric KT 1000 apparatus. The greatest movement during the measurements on 100 knees was observed in 25 degrees flexion and during the application of force 89N. In 70 degrees flexion the movement was only half of that observed in 25 degrees flexion. The difference of the average movements measured bilaterally was neither in active nor in passive experiments more than 0.5 mm. The difference between the average values of the compliance indexes on the left and right side was only 0.01 mm. In all measurements the frequency distribution of the differences between the two sides was essentially the same. The difference between the movements on the two sides did not exceed 2 mm-s in 90-100 percent of the cases.