Development of user-friendly system of flexible electrogoniometers for use in total knee arthroplasty

With an increase in number of people suffering from Knee osteoarthritis, Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) seems to be a promising solution which relieves the patients from pain and restores their functional abilities. Objective functional outcome assessment of the knee following such an intervention is useful in meeting the increasing demand for evidence based practice and evaluating the efficiency of the treatment. A review of the literature indicated that, due to the lack of a clinically relevant, simple, scientific measurement technique, such assessments are seldom carried out in clinical settings. Hence, to enhance clinical research in the field of orthopaedics and to facilitate a routine clinical appraisal of individual patients and the intervention they have received, a simple, portable, robust, unobtrusive, useful and reliable tool which allows clinical staff to study the behaviour of patients and acquire sufficient information regarding their knee joint movement during various activities of daily living (ADL) was developed.The project aimed to produce ‘A user friendly version of flexible electrogoniometers’; namely, Strathclyde University Data Logging System (SUDALS). The newly developed system was tested quantitatively for its reliability, reproducibility and validity during various ADL’s such as level walking, getting in and out of chair, stair ascend, stair descend and deep squatting and the system was also tested qualitatively for its usability by involving focus group comprising of research nurses and AHP’s. The results of these studies showed that, the newly developed system has a good resolution and is capable of quantifying angular displacements to the nearest 0.15° with a maximum inaccuracy of 3° to 5° in extreme conditions. There is a good repeatability and reproducibility in the data recorded by the system. The maximum/minimum knee flexion angles recorded by the system during various ADL’s are within the values published in the literature. From these studies, it was concluded that, SUDALS is a user-friendly system and this version of flexible electrogoniometers with a few additional improvements can be used as a clinical tool to assess the functional outcomes of the knee following TKA.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral-pg

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Strathclyde

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Indramohan, Vivek Padmanaabhan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Rowe, Philip

DOI

10.48730/m2fp-dh09

Identifier

uk.bl.ethos.510844
T12476

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:strathclyde:gx41mh91j