Morphology of the medial collateral ligament of the knee

Background

Quantitative knowledge on the anatomy of the medial collateral ligament (MCL) is important for treatment of MCL injury and for MCL release during total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The objective of this study was to quantitatively determine the morphology of the MCL of human knees.

Methods

10 cadaveric human knees were dissected to investigate the MCL anatomy. The specimens were fixed in full extension and this position was maintained during the dissection and morphometric measurements. The outlines of the insertion sites of the superficial MCL (sMCL) and deep MCL (dMCL) were digitized using a 3D digitizing system.

Results

The insertion areas of the superficial MCL (sMCL) were 348.6 ± 42.8 mm² and 79.7 ± 17.6 mm² on the tibia and femur, respectively. The insertion areas of the deep MCL (dMCL) were 63.6 ± 13.4 mm² and 71.9 ± 14.8 mm² on the tibia and femur, respectively. The distances from the centroids of the tibial and femoral insertions of the sMCL to the tibial and femoral joint line were 62.4 ± 5.5 mm and 31.1 ± 4.6 mm, respectively. The distances from the centroids of dMCL in the tibial insertion and the femoral insertion to the tibial and femoral joint line were 6.5 ± 1.3 mm and 20.5 ± 4.2 mm, respectively. The distal portion of the dMCL (meniscotibial ligament – MTL) was approximately 1.7 times wider than the proximal portion of the dMCL (meniscofemoral ligament – MFL), whereas the MFL was approximately 3 times longer than the MTL.

Conclusions

The morphologic data on the MCL may provide useful information for improving treatments of MCL-related pathology and performing MCL release during TKA.