Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) - the replacement of the articulating surfaces of the knee joint - is an increasingly used intervention for osteoarthritis. Younger, more active patients are undergoing TKA due to the clinical success of the implants. Surgeons must make recommendations on the suitability of post-surgery sporting activities; a balance must be struck between the health-promoting nature of the activity and the risk involved to the implant. Golf has been identified as a sport with a large number of participants that is recommended by the majority of knee surgeons. Despite golf being considered a low risk activity, there is limited scientific evidence that the loading applied to the knee-joint may be larger than assumed. Thus, the main aim of this thesis was to provide objective biomechanical data to contribute to our scientific knowledge base and to provide meaningful clinical data to enable medical practitioners to make informed decisions regarding the appropriateness of golf as an activity for post -TKA individuals. Three studies are presented in this thesis. The first investigated the suitability of a standard six-degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) marker model and tested the performance of an alternative model that included an 'optimised', modified cluster design placed on a site of low soft tissue artefact. Whilst statistically significant differences were identified between knee angles derived from each cluster design, the magnitude of the differences were small. Thus, both of the marker models were considered to provide knee-angle measurements that would be considered equivalent in a clinical setting.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:625503 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Molloy, Martin-Patrick |
| Publisher | Ulster University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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