Return to sports, recreational activity and patient-reported outcomes after lateral unicompartmental knee arthroplasty

Abstract

Retrospective case series, Level IV.

Sports, Physical Activity and Patient-Reported Outcomes After Medial Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty in Young Patients

“…High and regular athletic activity leads to an increase in stress on the implant-bone interface which may potentially lead to an acceleration of wear and therefore to higher revision rates in young and active patients after total joint arthroplasty [32,[42][43][44]. Due to the mobile meniscal bearing in OUKA, fully congruent contact between the components is ensured throughout flexion and extension leading to compression forces instead of shear forces with low wear rates at long-term followup [32,45,46].…”

“…have reported the physical activity after unicompartmental knee arthroplasty [27,[29][30][31][32]. In a series of 83 patients, Naal et al reported a return to activity rate of 95% 18 months after the implantation of the fixed bearing Preservation prosthesis [30]; Fisher et al demonstrated a rate of 93% 18 months after medial Oxford unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (OUKA) in a series of 76 patients [29]; Hopper et al reported a return to activity rate of 96.7% in a series of 37 patients 22 months after OUKA [27].…”

“…Due to the mobile meniscal bearing in OUKA, fully congruent contact between the components is ensured throughout flexion and extension leading to compression forces instead of shear forces with low wear rates at long-term followup [32,45,46]. Even if these implant-specific properties may be of particular advantage in highly active patients in contrast to UKA with fixed bearing, wear is a function of use and therefore a major risk for the failure in UKA [32]. In our study we had three revisions with conversion to TKA.…”

“…The follow-up regimen and the assessment of data have been described previously [32].The University of California Los Angeles activity scale (UCLA) [33] as well as the Tegner activity score [34] were used to assess patients' physical activity. Preoperative and postoperative physical activities were recorded using the Schulthess Clinic Activity Score [30].…”

“…If such expectations are not met, patients may be dissatisfied with the outcome in spite of a technically successful surgery. There are numerous studies assessing patients' activity levels after TKA [25][26][27][28] and UKA [27,[29][30][31][32]. Nevertheless, none of these studies has addressed the high activity demanded by the group of young patients with high expectations on the function of their replaced knee joint [27,[29][30][31].…”