Description
The goal of unicondylar knee arthroplasty (UKA) is to relieve pain and correct deformity while maintaining stability in isolated medial osteoarthritis. Failure after UKA has been attributed to various factors including implant malpositioning and alignment. Individualized arthroplasty procedures like patient specific implantation aims to optimize clinical results by including preoperative meticulous 3D planning of the patient's joint and manufacturing patient specific cutting guides, pins and implants, thus achieving a more precise implant positioning and a better alignment. The expected more anatomical reconstruction of the patient's anatomy with the restoration of patient kinematics are prone to obtain better clinical results. Removing less bone also eases possible revision procedures.
Although isolated medial osteoarthritis is estimated to affect 25% of all osteoarthritic patients, UKAs account for less than 10% of knee arthroplasties. We believe that correct patient selection in addition to a rightful preoperative planning and use of patient specific implantation are expected to achieve better clinical results than off-the-shelf implants and standart UKA procedures.
