Articular surfaces of the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint and its proper collateral ligament (PCL) fiber bundles as a crossed four-bar linkage system

Abstract

Starting from analyses, performed to design total knee joint prostheses, we used similar approaches for the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint of the finger (Wachowski et al., 2011). By 4-bar linkage analysis of main fiber bundles in the PIP joint´s Proper Collateral Ligament (PCL), we were able to construct the curvatures of the only two articulating surfaces which can perform PIP flexion by rolling relative to each other without any gliding. Such engineering results can be used for prosthesis design although they deviate from normal anatomy.