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 kinematic analyses and summarized the motion characteristics of six-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) of patellofemoral joints under different functional activities. Patella has a relatively unified trend in lateral, anterior and posterior translation, tilt and flexion. However, different measurements limit an in-depth comparison between studies. In the future, widely applying magnetic resonance(MRI) or/and dual fluoroscopic imaging system (DFIS), standardizing the establishment of coordinate system or definition and use of morphological parameters, and increasing sample size will contribute to explicating the 6DOF motion characteristics of patellofemroal joints in vivo and improve the clinical evaluation on kinematic function of patellofemroal joints.