Application of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis

OBJECTIVE: For the treatment of medial compartment knee osteoarthritis, unicompartmental knee arthroplasty was chosen on the basis of the clinical effects and the rate of prosthesis survival. A retrospective analysis was performed on 500 patients with osteoarthritis of the medial compartment knee treated by unicompartmental knee arthroplasty between April 2007 and April 2017. The cohort was comprised of 176 males and 324 females, aged (61.12 ± 8.0) years old. The clinical treatment was evaluated in terms of the range of movement (ROM), the Knee Society score (KSS), and the Oxford knee score. RESULTS: The follow-up lasted 1.59-11.60 years. Grouped in terms of age, 133 cases were in the middle-age, 295 were in the old-age group, and 72 in the advanced-age group. Against the Iwano classification of the patellofemoral joint, 104 cases were graded 0-1; 179 were graded 2; 182 were graded 3 and 35 were graded 4. The KSS score improved from (59 ± 5.6) points before the operation to (93 ± 3.5) points after the operation. The OKS score increased from (24 ± 2.4) points before the operation to (45 ± 3.8) points after the operation. The ROM of knee joint was (111 ± 6.8)° before the operation and was (117 ± 9.7)° after the operation. The 10-year survival rate of the prosthesis was 96%. CONCLUSION: UKA is one of the treatments for medial compartmental knee osteoarthritis. The issues, such as age and patellofemoral joint degeneration, can be addressed by careful selection of patients and precise operational manipulation.