Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Accurate and reliable measurement of frontal lower limb alignment on X-ray film is important for diagnosis and treatment of knee disease, while it is still controversial currently.
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the clinical and basic research progress related to frontal lower limb alignment measurement on X-ray film.
METHODS: A computer-base search was performed by the first author on CNKI database and PubMed database for the relate articles published from January 1985 to December 2011. The Chinese key words were “full length of the lower limb, lower limb alignment, lower limb axis, knee”, and the English key words were “lower limb alignment, knee alignment, lower limb formity, full length, HKA”. Articles related to film capture, measurement technique and its reliability, anatomic landmark and influencing factors of frontal lower limb alignment measurement on X-ray film were extensively reviewed. Finally, a total of 33 articles were included to review.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Full length lower limb X-ray film through one exposure combined with computer assisted measurement technique is an effective method for evaluating frontal lower limb alignment. Various influencing factors, such as weight bearing or not, rotation of lower limb, knee flexion and anatomic landmark location, should be considered in measurement.