Ten year survivorship after cemented and uncemented medial Uniglide® unicompartmental knee arthroplasties

Results of knee replacement registries have shown that unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) has a significantly higher revision and failure rate than current state-of-the-art TKA. The aim of this prospective study is to evaluate the long-term outcomes and to calculate the 10 year survival of knees with medial osteoarthritis treated with Uniglide® UKA.

Two hundred thirty-four patients were assessed by an independent clinical observer using the American Knee Society Clinical Rating System, a validated outcome measure. Kaplan–Meier analysis was used to calculate the 10 year survival rates using revision surgery for any cause as the end point.

There were no revisions due to progression of lateral osteoarthritis or polyethylene failure. There were one traumatic and three non-traumatic bearing dislocations and two revisions due to aseptic loosening of the tibial component. One joint was revised for traumatic ligament rupture, one for synovitis from bearing impingement, one due to femoral component mal-positioning and one for infection.

A total of 10 cases were revised due to failures for any cause in the 61 patients withdrawn because they had died, thus giving a cumulative survival rate at 10 years of 95.57%. The knee (function) score showed an increase from 33.4 (54.7) pre-operatively to 94 (83.4) points post-operatively. The average range of motion increased from 107 to 122° (p < 0.01).

Based on our findings we believe that the Uniglide® unicompartmental knee prosthesis offers a safe and effective solution for the treatment of medial compartment osteoarthritis.