BB Knee Arthrometer

The KT1000®¹ (and then later the KT2000®), as developed by Medmetric®, set the standard for the measurement of knee stability in the sagittal plane. This design, produced and marketed by Medmetric®, has been adopted practically universally in both research and clinical settings for quantifying knee anterior-posterior motion under various conditions. Due to the limited availability of the Medmetric® KT2000 device, Blue Bay Research Inc. has been asked to recreate the KT measurement capability in an alternative device.

The Blue Bay Research Inc. Knee Arthrometer measures the movement of the tibia relative to a reference on the patella.

The Arthrometer is strapped to the anterior of the lower leg with one reference pad in contact with the patella and another in contact with the proximal tibia.

A force is applied to a handle posteriorly and anteriorly and the change in the anterior position of the tibia is measured in relation to the patella. Another measurement that can be made is the change in the anterior position while loading the calf directly in anterior drawer

The anterior-posterior knee laxity is useful for determining the functionality of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL).

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Daniel DM, Malcom LL, Losse G, Stone ML, Sachs R, Burks R: Instrumented measurement of anterior laxity of the knee. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1985 Jun;67(5):720-6.