Tibial shaft anatomy differs between Caucasians and East Asian individuals

The orientation and distance from the shaft of the femur and tibia to the articular surface centre is important for performing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) with cementless stems. It is important to understand anatomic differences between races to match the tibial and femoral shaft axis to the knee articular surface. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare knee morphology between Caucasian and East Asian individuals to determine the optimal placement of tibial and femoral stems.

A retrospective study was conducted on a matched cohort of 50 East Asians (21F, 29M) and 50 Caucasians (21F, 29M) by age and gender. CT scans were obtained in healthy volunteers using < 2-mm slices. The distance from the proximal tibial diaphysis axis to the tibial plateau centre and the distance from the distal femoral diaphysis axis to the centre of distal femoral articular surface were measured separately. Tibial measurements were taken using Akagi's anteroposterior (AP) axis and the widest mediolateral (ML) diameter, and femoral measurements were based on Whiteside's line and the surgical epicondylar axis.

The ML distance between the tibial shaft centre and Akagi's line was significantly higher for Asians (9.9 ± 2.7 mm, Caucasians 7.7 ± 3.1 mm, p < 0.001). The distance between the femoral shaft centre and Whiteside's line was lower, although not significantly different (Asians 1.9 ± 1.0 mm, Caucasians 2.2 ± 1.1 mm, n.s.). However, there were no differences in the AP dimension for the femur or tibia comparing Asians to Caucasians in both tibial side (Asians 10.6 ± 3.3 mm vs. Caucasians 10.9 ± 4.0 mm) and femoral side (Asians 18.1 ± 1.7 mm vs. Caucasians 17.5 ± 1.6 mm).

East Asian individuals have more offset in the ML dimension for the tibia. This finding is clinical relevant, as this dimensional difference should be taken into consideration when designing primary and revision TKA stemmed tibial implants for East Asian individuals.

Case-control study, Level III.