Abstract:Patellar tracking disorder is recognized as one of the major causes of the pathophysiological mechanism in patellofemoral pain syndrome. This paper reviewed the results of patellofemoral joint kinematic analyses and summarized the motion characteristics of six-degrees-of-freedom kinematics of patellofemoral joint under different functional activities in vivo. Results showed that the patella has a relatively unified trend in lateral, anterior, and posterior translation, tilt, and flexion. However, different measurement methods limit an in-depth comparison between studies. It is vital to standardize measurement protocols, recruit more subjects to understand the patellar tracking better and establish an evaluation system for the patellofemoral joint function.