الفهرس 
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Abstract
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disorder and is characterized by abnormal articular cartilage and subchondral bone of the tibiofemoral joint. Malalignment (valgus or varus) of the knee is assumed to correlate with unicompartmental OA of the knee. However, it is still unknown whether malalignment precedes the development of radiographic OA, whether malalignment is a result of OA, or (even more likely) whether the relationship between malalignment and OA is bidirectional.
In our study, 100 patients of knee osteoarthritis patients were recruited from outpatient clinics of rheumatology and orthopedic departments in Sohag university hospital.
In our study OA patients having malalignment were slightly younger than those without malalignment. More of cases with malalignment are workers, compared to those with no malalignment, with a significant difference.
All of our patients were in the (overweight) to (obese) range of weight, with a BMI of 30.33 in patients having no malalignment and 31.5 among those having malalignment. There was non significant differences between the two groups regarding BMI.
There was non significant difference between patients with or without malalignment as regards the duration of osteoarthritis.
In our cases, signs and symptoms of OA were more evident among patients with malalignment than those without. Crepitus was seen nearly among all cases of our study group, with the exception of only 2 cases of the group of OA without malalignment. Clinically evident effusion was seen more among patients with malalignment than those without. Morning stiffness was seen among most cases of the two groups, with non significant differences between the two groups.
Doing X-ray for all patients, the K&L score showed worse score in the OA with malalignment than those without malalignment.
Most of cases (33 case out of 40) had varus malalignment, either unilateral (in 8 cases) or bilateral (in 25 cases). The remaining 7 cases had bilateral valgus malalignment.
The MRI picture of OA changes was seen in patients with malalignment much more than those without malalignment. Using MRI examination, menischial tear and extrusion were shown to be significantly associated with OA.
Conclusion
We can conclude that malalignment of the knees is associated with osteoarthritis, and also it can exaggerate the manigfestations of osteoarthritis or even interferes with treatment.