The peripheral soft tissues should not be ignored in the finite element models of the human knee joint

Abstract

In finite element models of the either implanted or intact human knee joint, soft tissue structures like tendons and ligaments are being incorporated, but usually skin, peripheral knee soft tissues, and the posterior capsule are ignored and assumed to be of minor influence on knee joint biomechanics. It is, however, unknown how these peripheral structures influence the biomechanical response of the knee. In this study, the aim was to assess the significance of the peripheral soft tissues and posterior capsule on the kinematics and laxities of human knee joint, based on experimental tests on three human cadaveric specimens. Despite the high inter-subject variability of the results, it was demonstrated that the target tissues have a considerable influence on posterior translational and internal and valgus rotational laxities of lax knees under flexion. Consequently, ignoring these tissues from computational models may alter the knee joint biomechanics.