Predictors of Midterm Outcomes after Medial Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty in Asians

Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) is an established option for surgical treatment of isolated osteoarthritis within one of the three compartments of the knee joint.1) In recent years, UKA has gained popularity amongst surgeons and patients alike as its mid-and longterm results are encouraging.2) The current literature shows that the first-decade survivorship after UKA has been improved and is comparable with that of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in patients aged more than 60 years.3) UKA offers several advantages over TKA in that (1) the surgery is less invasive; (2) patients tend to have their knee flexion preserved; and (3) the operated knee retains much of its biomechanics leaving patients to have a normal feeling knee.2) Longo et al. 4) in their systemic review have advocated the routine use of UKA for medial compartment osteoarthritis.While UKA has advantages over TKA, national joint registries report a significantly higher revision rate of UKA. 5) As a result, most surgeons are highly selective, offering UKA only to a small proportion of patients requiring arthroplasty of the knee and consequently performing only a few UKA procedures each year.This is likely to be perpetuated by the fear of poor outcomes following UKA.The overall size of the practice is often beyond the surgeon's control.Therefore, the case volume may only be Predictors of Midterm Outcomes after Medial Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty in Asians