Does higher knee hyperextension in patients with hemiplegia affect lateral and medial meniscus volume in the paretic leg? A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: After stroke, an abnormal gait pattern gradually leads to knee pain and joint lesions, resulting the gait instability. However, the correlation between the knee hyperextension and gait pattern, the meniscus volume, and the water content of meniscus in paretic and non-paretic legs has not been fully investigated. Moreover, most of physicians tend to ignore this knee hyperextension. This study attempted to emphasize the importance of knee hyperextension using gait analysis and Magnetic resonance imaging (Trial registration number ChiCTR2000039641, date of registration 04/11/2020). METHODS: Eight patients with chronic hemiplegic (6 male, 2 female) volunteered to participate in this study. Participants was recruited if they had a hemiplegia following a stroke occurring more than 6 months, had an ability to walk 10 m without aids, had a Function Ambulation Category level at least 3 and above, and had a hemiplegic lower extremity identified as Brunnstrom state III or above identification. The spatial–temporal gait parameters and kinematic parameters in the paretic and the non-paretic legs and the percentage of free water content in deep and shallow layers. RESULTS: Longer time since hemiplegia led to larger angles of knee hyperextension (R = 0.56, p = 0.016), larger angles of knee hyperextension led to more tears in meniscus (R = − 0.53, − 0,57 and − 0.70), and larger angles of knee hyperextension decreased water content of the lateral meniscus in the non-paretic leg (R = − 0.91) but increased water content of the medial meniscus (R = 0.53 and 0.63). CONCLUSIONS: The knee hyperextension could not be ignored by physicians and needed to be diagnosed and treated as early as possible, the time since hemiplegia could be an indicator of sign of knee hyperextension. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13102-022-00611-1.