Investigation of Anterior Cruciate Ligament of the Knee with Relevance to Surgical Reconstruction—A Planar ematical Analysis

Anterior Cruciate Ligament of the knee is injured quite often while performing strenuous activities like in sports. Due to poor healing characteristics, surgical reconstruction of the ligament is used to restore the joint function. However, many significant percentage of the patients are unable to return to their pre-injury levels of activity. In addition, more complications of the joint can result in repeated surgeries. Several clinical and experimental reports suggest the need for further investigations in order to gain insight in the behavior of the reconstructed ligament and related outcome. The present study used ematical modelling to simulate the knee function in the sagittal plane when the ligaments are intact. The ligaments were separated into fiber bundles similar to those reported in the literature. Such simulations could be used to investigate effects of different tunnel positions during the ligament reconstruction. Knee motion during 0°–120° flexion and an anterior laxity test at different joint positions were simulated. The outcome of the model simulations suggest that anterior fibers of the ligament contribute significantly throughout the knee flexion in resisting anterior forces on the tibia. In comparison, the posterior fibers contribute in near extremes of motion only. The results of model simulations corroborated with experimental observations from literature and have clinical relevance.