Abstract
Background
Variability in component alignment continues to be a major in total knee arthroplasty(TKA). In the long term, coronal plane malalignment has been associated with an increased risk of loosening, insatability, and wear. Recently, patient specific guide in total knee arthroplasty have been introduced, in which preoperative 3-dementional imaging is used to manufacture disposable cutting guide specific to a patient's anatomy. The goals of patient specific guide are to improve the accuracy of post operative alignment and eliminate outlier cases. The aim of this study is to evaluate clinical results and quantify the coronal plane alignment between a group of patients who underwent TKA using patient specific guide versus standard instrumentation.
Patients and Method: An unselected consecutive series of seventy patients undergoing primary TKA using the same cruciate retaining cemented total knee system (VanuardTM, Biomet, Inc, warsaw, Indiana USA) between April 2010 and September 2013 were studied. Patients were included only if they were deemed to be candidates for a
Cruciate retaining TKA. Patients were excluded if they had a flexion contracture greater than 40°, or severe valgus or varus deformity. Forty-nine knees was operated a TKA with standard instrumentation method. Subsequently twenty-one knees was received a TKA using CT-based patient specific guide(SignatureTM). Postoperatively standing AP hip-to-ankle radiographs were obtained, from which the lower extremity mechanical axis, component angle were measured. The alignment goals were a neutral mechanical axis defined as a hip-to-ankle angle of 0°with the femoral and tibial components aligned perpendicular to the mechanical axis. The total operating time were quantified utilising an operating room database. The total operating time between TKAs performed with standard instrumentation and those performed with patient specific guides was compared in each group. All patients postoperatively was evaluated of clinical results the Japan Orthopedics Association(JOA) Knee scores. Postoperative blood loss volume and postoperative concentrations of D-dimer were also measured.
Results
The mechanical axis angle in patient specific guide group was 1.8°, while the standard instrumentation group was 3.4°and there was no statistical significance. The number of outliers for mechanical axis angle was virtually identical between patient specific guide group 29.0% and the standard group 38.8%. The components angle between the two groups did not achieve statistical significance. The operative time in patient specific guide was 117.4 minutes and significantly less compared to the time of standard group 130.4 minutes. The JOA Knee score of standard instrumentation group was 80.8 points, and the score of patient specific guides group was 85.7 points. There was no statistical significance between the two groups on the clinical score. The blood loss volume of between the two group was no different substantially. The postoperative concentrations of D-dimer of patient specific guide group was 5.3(μg/ml), more less significantly than standard group 9.2 (μg/ml).
Conclusion
patient specific guide improved operative time and postoperative concentrations of D-dimer in TKA, this study demonstrates patient specific guide to obtain same angle of overall mechanical axis angle and component alignment. The use of patient specific guide did achieve shorter operative time.
