Change in the normal knee position sense with ageing in 700 normal volunteers

Abstract

The decline in joint position sense with ageing has been reported in small numbers of patients. However the previous studies did not show in which age group the joint position sense started to deteriorate. The aim of this investigation was to find out the change in knee position sense with ageing in normal volunteers. Knee joint position sense was evaluated in normal and healthy volunteers. The position sense was studied in the prone position to minimize the effect of weight passing through the knee joint. The knee position sense was studied during 0 to 90°knee flexion. The ability to reproduce knee positioning by both active and passive means was evaluated. A CIBEX EDI 320 goniometer was used to measure the deviated angles. There were 700 volunteers with 350 males and 350 females in this study, aged from 16 to 80 years. Joint position sense was found to deteriorate after 50 years of age. There was no significant change of knee position sense in the volunteers who were under 50 years old. The active and passive reproduction of knee positioning correlated well with each other. The deviated angles increased when the set angles of the reference knees were close to 90°. The significant relation of ageing to knee position sense is of clinical concern in patients older than 50 years. This data may be used as basic information for the study of knee position sense after arthroplasty.