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Perioperative Complications of Simultaneous versus Staged Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty

  • Symposium: Papers Presented at the Annual Meetings of the Knee Society
  • Published:
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®

Abstract

Background

The complication risk of staged versus simultaneous total knee arthroplasty continues to be debated in the literature. Previous reports suggest unicompartmental knee arthroplasty provides a more rapid functional recovery than total knee arthroplasty. However, little data exist on whether simultaneous unicompartmental knee arthroplasty can be performed without increasing the perioperative risk compared with staged unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.

Questions/purposes

We therefore asked if there is an increased risk of perioperative complications with bilateral simultaneous unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.

Methods

We retrospectively compared 141 patients (282 knees) treated with staged unicompartmental knee arthroplasty with 35 patients (70 knees) treated with simultaneous unicompartmental knee arthroplasty to evaluate perioperative complications and short-term results assessed by Knee Society function scores and the Lower Extremity Activity Scale.

Results

Patients who underwent simultaneous unicompartmental knee arthroplasty had a shorter cumulative operative time (109 versus 122 minutes), a shorter cumulative length of hospital stay (1.7 versus 2.5 days), higher Knee Society function scores at most recent followup (88 versus 73), and higher Lower Extremity Activity Scale (12.0 versus 10.2) without a difference in perioperative complications. The simultaneous cohort was younger (59 versus 63 years of age) and less obese (body mass index 31 versus 33 kg/m2) than the staged group.

Conclusions

Although we found a substantial bias for performing simultaneous unicompartmental knee arthroplasty in younger and less obese patients, these data suggest it can be performed without increasing perioperative morbidity or mortality in this patient population.

Level of Evidence

Level III, therapeutic study. See Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint Implant Surgeons, Inc, 7277 Smith’s Mill Road, Suite 200, New Albany, OH, 43054, USA

    Keith R. Berend MD, Michael J. Morris MD, Michael D. Skeels DO, Adolph V. Lombardi Jr MD, FACS & Joanne B. Adams BFA

  2. Department of Orthopaedics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Keith R. Berend MD & Adolph V. Lombardi Jr MD, FACS

  3. Mount Carmel Health System, New Albany, OH, USA

    Keith R. Berend MD & Adolph V. Lombardi Jr MD, FACS

  4. Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Adolph V. Lombardi Jr MD, FACS

Authors
  1. Keith R. Berend MD
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  2. Michael J. Morris MD
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  3. Michael D. Skeels DO
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  4. Adolph V. Lombardi Jr MD, FACS
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  5. Joanne B. Adams BFA
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Keith R. Berend MD.

Additional information

Two of the authors (KRB, AVL) receive royalties and institutional financial support and have consulting agreements with Biomet, Inc (Warsaw, IN).

Each author certifies that his institution has approved the human protocol for this investigation, that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research, and that informed consent for participation in the study was obtained.

This work was performed at Joint Implant Surgeons, Inc, New Albany, OH, USA.

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Berend, K.R., Morris, M.J., Skeels, M.D. et al. Perioperative Complications of Simultaneous versus Staged Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty. Clin Orthop Relat Res 469, 168–173 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-010-1492-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-010-1492-4

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