The effect of physiotherapy on patellofemoral joint function with varying bone morphology.

The patellofemoral joint consists of the femur, patella (kneecap), and tibia in the knee. It is a complicated joint that causes pain in about one-quarter of the population, often due to faulty patella motion. Patellofemoral pain is often persistent, and difficult to treat. Various physiotherapy interventions are used to relieve pain, with the aim of correcting patella motion, but tend to only demonstrate short-term effects. The difficulty behind developing effective long-term treatment strategies is that patella motion is difficult to measure; however, the use of computer models and motion capture technology allows us to estimate the motion and muscle activation patterns of the patella. This study will investigate the effects of physiotherapy techniques on patella motion using computational musculoskeletal models for patients with patellofemoral pain and healthy individuals. We expect to determine that therapeutic interventions will reduce lateral patella motion with respect to the femur and influence muscle activations to improve congruence between the patella and the femur.

Faculty Supervisor:

Michael Rainbow

Student:

Partner:

The University of Queensland

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

Queen's University

Program: