Study on the correlation between the severity of patellofemoral arthritis and the morphology of the distal femur

PURPOSE: Distal femoral torsion is a key factor for poor alignment of patellofemoral joint. This study aims to evaluate the correlation between distal femoral torsion and the severity of patellofemoral arthritis, and to analyze the correlation between distal femoral torsion and the morphology of femoral condyle. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on 125 patients awaiting surgical treatment for knee osteoarthritis from January 2021 to March 2022(79 females, 46 males, average age: 65.78 years, SD 6.61). All patients underwent knee joint radiography, lower-limb digital radiography, and knee joint CT scans. The ratio of length of each distal femoral condyle, TT-TG, patellar tilt, DFL-PCL, DFL-TEA, TEA-PCL and TEA-ACL were measured. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the correlation between distal femoral torsion and ratio of distal femoral condyle, TT-TG and patellar tilt. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the correlation between each parameter and the severity of PFOA. RESULTS: With the increased severity of PFOA, TT-TG, patellar tilt, DFL-PCL, DFL-TEA and PCA all tended to increase. Patellar tilt was correlated with DFL-PCL (r = 0.243) and TEA-PCL(r = 0.201), but TT-TG had no evident correlation with distal femoral torsion. Compared with Grade I patients of PFOA, DFL-PCL, DFL-TEA, and TEA-PCL were risk factors for increased severity of patellofemoral arthritis in Grade III patients of PFOA, but there was no significant statistic difference in Grade II patients of PFOA. CONCLUSIONS: Distal femoral torsion correlates with the severity of patellofemoral arthritis. Variation of the femoral transepicondylar axis caused by the change of ratio of the femoral condyle is particularly important in the distal femoral torsion. In patients with severe PFOA, abnormal variation of the femoral condyle axis should be not ignored. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12891-023-06198-z.