COMPARISON OF EXTERNAL TIBIAL ROTATION IN AFFECTED AND UNAFFECTED KNEES AS MEASURED BY TWO CLINICAL METHODS

PURPOSE: To determine if the goniometric and Modified Helfet Test (MHT) methods of assessing tibial rotation, could distinguish between knees affected or unaffected by pathology and/or surgery. METHODS: Twenty-eight subjects with knee pathology diagnosed by a physician and with self-reported activity limitations were tested on one occasion using both methods. With subjects in sitting, the goniometric method used a standard goniometer to quantify the angle of the tibial surface relative to the subject’s sagittal plane in degrees of range of motion; whereas the MHT referenced the tibial tubercle relative to the patella, as either producing external rotation (positive test) or not (negative test). DATA ANALYSIS: Activity limitation was categorized by having four levels of severity. A four-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the affected and unaffected knees for the goniometric method. A Sign Test and a Chi Square test were used to examine the frequencies of positive and negative MHT scores. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences in degrees of tibial rotation were observed between the affected and unaffected knees (p <0.01). No statistically significant differences were found between the frequencies of occurrences of positive and negative MHT results were found between knees (p <0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Neither the goniometric nor the MHT methods were able to distinguish between affected and unaffected knees. The utility of tibial rotation as a clinical measure needs to be re-examined.

Name thesis:degree_name

M Sc

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physical Therapy

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Harris, Katherina M.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kramer, John

• Tibial rotation
• Modified Helfet Test
• Knee pathology

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/20251

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/20251