Knee Arthroplasty: With or Without Patellar Component?

Abstract

Arthroplasty is used when there is irreversible damage to the articular cartilage of the knee. It involves implanting a bicompartimental (femoral and tibial components) or a tricompartimental (femoral, tibial and patellar components) prosthesis. It is a very invasive and costly operation, so our objective was to evaluate the necessity of the patellar component. Material and methods: During our study we've included 39 patients: in 27 cases we used tricompartimental prosthesis, while the other 12 received only the bicompartimental components. Patients were evaluated preoperatively and postoperatively using the International Knee Documentation Comitee score. We've also compared our results with the results of other published authors. Results: We've found that there is little to no difference between the two groups regarding mobility and complication, however patients with bicompartimentalarthroplasty complained of less pain. Conclusion: We've found that bicompartimentalarthroplasty -being a less invasive procedure -is better not only in terms of pain management, but there is also less hemorrhaging, shorter intraoperative time is considered, revision is easier and also has financially advantages, both for the patient and for the medical facility.