ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to examine the effect of posterior
cruciate ligament (PCL) retention, PCL recession, and PCL excision
during cruciate-retaining total knee replacement.MethodsA total of 3018 anatomic graduated component total knee replacements
were examined; 1846 of these retained the PCL, 455 PCLs were partially
recessed, and in 717 the PCL was completely excised from the back
of the tibia.ResultsClinical scores between PCL groups favored excision for flexion
(p < 0.0001), and recession and retention for stairs (p <
0.0001). There was a mild difference in long-term all-cause aseptic
survivorship between PCL-retained (96.4% at 15 years) combined with
PCL-recessed groups (96.6% at 15 years) when compared with the PCL-excised
group (95.0% at 15 years) (p = 0.0411, Wilcoxon; p = 0.0042, log-rank),
as well as tibial or femoral loosening, which reported prosthesis
survival of 97.8% at 15 years for PCL-retained knees, 98.2% for
recessed knees, and 96.4% for excised knees (p = 0.0934, Wilcoxon;
p = 0.0202, log-rank).ConclusionsDespite some trade off in clinical performance, if the PCL is
detached at the time of operation, conversion to a posterior-stabilised
prosthesis may not be necessarily required as long as stability
in the anteroposterior and coronal planes is achieved.