Abstract

The study of knee disorders like anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficiency proprioceptive deficits is becoming increasingly important. As methods for the detection of joint position sense have been recently criticized, a method for the measurement of knee joint kinaesthesia with a special testing chair was developed. Eliminating cutaneous, visual and auditory sensations, threshold level measurements and detection failure analysis for both movement and stop detection were performed in both knees of 20 normal subjects and 20 patients with unilateral ruptures of the ACLs. In those cases of correct movement and stop detection no significant differences in the threshold detection levels between the damaged and undamaged knees could be observed. In contrast, movement and stop-detection-failure analysis showed significantly higher failure rates in ACL deficient knees than in the undamaged knees of the ACL patients and in those of the control group, thus suggesting a proprioceptive deficit in the knees of patients with ACL tears. Conclusion: this method for the detection of knee joint kinaesthesia, including both movement and stop detection measurements, proved to be reliable for the measurement of knee proprioception, showing that special attention should be paid to detection failure analysis. In addition, the results present strong evidence for these proprioceptive deficits in ACL deficient knees being especially a matter of central nervous dysregulation rather than of simple receptor dysfunction. Verf.-Referat