SNSF Grant for Sangeux and Viehweger
Morgan Sangeux of Elke Viehweger’s group Clinical Biomechanics in Paediatric Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Modelling has raised around 650'000 SFR from Swiss National Science Foundation for his four year project "Identifying the Causes for Patella Instability (IDPAT)".
Anterior knee pain, notably due to patella-femoral joint instability (PFJ) is a very common orthopaedics issue, particularly in adolescent girls. The causes for the instability are multi factorial and there is a knowledge gap on what are the most important factors and the patho-mechanics of the instability. The three main factors are: abnormal shape of the femur and patella bones, laxity of the medial patella femoral ligament, and the orientation of the knee extensor mechanism (quadriceps muscle group-patella-patella tendon-tibial tubercle). The clinical decision-making process consists in evaluating the relative contribution of each factor to the overall instability to address the principal cause(s) and help the patient.
The objective of this project is to develop and implement a patient-specific musculoskeletal modelling platform to evaluate the relative contribution of each factor to the PFJ instability. Three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging will be utilized to create patient-specific detailed model of the knee joint while bi-plane radiographs will be utilized to create patient-specific models of the entire lower limbs. In addition, bi-plane radiographs will allow the accurate registration of the motion capture markers to the underlying skeletal anatomy. Musculoskeletal modelling simulations will be performed with an open-source software package.
The researchers expect this research project to generate new knowledge on the causes of patella femoral joint instability, contribute new tools to an open-source musculoskeletal modelling platform, and lead to improved clinical decision making for children and adolescents with patella femoral joint instability.
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