ABSTRACT
Biotensegrity, a new form of functional anatomic modeling, and ultrasonography, high-resolution dynamic imaging of living tissue, provide the author with the vision of a path forward in nonsurgical, interventional orthopedics. Biotensegrity serves as model that pushes to integrate all of these disparate viewpoints, reminding the author to use palpation/touch in every appointment as a connection to the whole patient and as a quick assessment of connective tissue integrity via haptic perception. Biotensegrity also emphasizes dynamics, as in the term mesokinetic system. If biotensegrity modeling is accurate, the femur and patella float in a continuity of tension, and the force of impact could have caused a loss of pre-stress anywhere in that continuity, with the extensor mechanism the most likely candidate. The biotensegrity model inspires the author to examine anatomy and biomechanics with new eyes and to consider the source of biomechanical dysfunction in tissues the author has traditionally ignored; this expands our differential diagnosis in interesting directions.
