A Note on the Application and Evaluation of the Buckle Transducer for Knee Ligament Force Measurement

Abstract

Knee ligament forces were directly measured with buckle transducers. Given a collection of buckle transducers with adequate rigidity and a variety of sizes to accommodate different ligamentous geometries, two potential problems remain when using the buckles: 1) impingement of the transducers with bone, producing a false output; 2) ligament shortening due to buckle installation, potentially altering the distribution of ligament forces around the knee. This report describes our current buckle transducer designs and installation procedures, and presents data which demonstrates that the errors due to ligament shortening and bone impingement can be assessed and reduced to acceptable levels.