Long-term results of «Universal» total knee endoprosthesis

The objective - to evaluate long-term results and survival rates of «Universal» condylar knee prosthesis. Material and methods. There were a total of 121 total knee joint replacements in the set with 107 patients aged 71.3 years on average (52-86 years). A total of 115 knees diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the 3-4th degree were indicated for the surgery, and there were 6 patients with the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. Functional outcomes were evaluated using the Knee Society Score (KSS), Results. The assessment of the knee state on a scale KSS average clinical section KSS (knee score) was 48.2, and functional (function score) - 46,8 points. After surgery, the indices increased to 87.4 points and 85.8 points, respectively. One complication was described during the surgery, namely - the fracture of the medial tibia condyle (0.8%). In the early post-surgery period, peroneal nerve paresis was observed in two patients (1.6%). In the postoperative period, disorders of the wound healing were observed in 6 patients (4.9%), which were healed successfully in a conservative way. In the late post-surgery period, there were infectious complications in the knee joint in 4 knee joints (3.3%). Aseptic loosening was observed in 4 cases out of 117 endoprostheses (3.4%). It always concerned the loosening of tibial component. The loosening of the femoral component was not observed. In the period from the implantation until June 2014, which is 16-22 years after the implantation, there are 16 patients in total surviving, who had a total of 21 implanted endoprostheses. Among them there are no signs of a loosening only in 4 patients (19%); there was an apparent radiolucent line up until 2 mm with a sclerotic rim under the tibial component. All the patients were without clinical symptoms for the loosening. Six female patients (28.5%) state troubles in the area of the femoro-patellar joint, where there is a lateralization of the patella, apparent on the X-ray images. Two patients (1.6%) experienced a periprosthetic femur fracture during the period of observation. It was possible to resolve this state by the distal femoral nail osteosynthesis. Upon assessing the results via the Kaplan-Meier curve method, the survival index was 98.7% after 7 years, 94.3% - after 22 years and 91.8% - after 22 years. Conclusion. The result of this study had showed the reliability of «Universal» prosthesis which can be recommended for the treatment of patients with degenerative knee disea;