Knee Alignment Patterns amongst Children in Borikiri, Port Harcourt

Abstract

 Knee alignment in which the mechanical axis (centre of gravity) bisects the knee when the patient is standing erect is termed normal, there are however deviations from this Genu varum and Genu valgus are the results of this mechanical axis deviation. In genu varum, the axis shifts laterally while in genu valgum, the shift is medial. The aim of this research is to determine the occurrence of various knee alignment patterns using the intercondylar and intermalleolar distance of children. A total number of 900 (450 boys 450 girls) school children ages from 2years to 10 years were utilized in this study with a view to classifying them into normal knees, genu varum and genu valgum. The children with no demonstrable intercondylar or intermalleolar distance were 568 constituting 67%. Two hundred and sixty-six (59.1%) male children had normal knee patterns while 169 (37.6%) had genu varum with a mean intercondylar distance of 0.75+0.3cm, and 15 (3.3%) had genu valgum with a mean intermalleolar distance of 3.25+1.75cm. Three hundred and two (67.1 %) of the females had normal knee alignment patterns, while 125 (27.8%) of them had genu varum with a mean intercondylar distance of 0.6+0.2cm and 23 (5.1 %) had genu valgum with mean intercondylar distance of 5.5+1.7cm. The differences in means in the intercondylar values was significant (P<0.01) while that of the intermalleolar values was insignificant (P>0.05). The work also showed that there are higher percentages of children with genu varum than those with genu valgum. Children with values above these figures may require careful follow-up.