Patellar mobilisation methods used during total knee arthroplasty (TKA) have been debated in the literature, with some proponents of minimally invasive TKA suggesting that laterally retracting, rather than everting the patella may be beneficial. It was our hypothesis that by using randomised, prospective, blinded study methods, there would be no significant difference in clinical outcome measures based solely on eversion of the patella during total knee arthroplasty. After an Introduction
Methods
Although Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) has been shown to correct abnormal frontal plane knee biomechanics, little is known about this effect beyond 6 months. The purpose of this study was to compare sequentially the knee adduction moment during level-walking before and after TKA in varus knees. We hypothesized that adduction moment would diminish after TKA proportionate to the tibio-femoral realignment in degrees. Fifteen patients (17 TKA's) with varus knees were prospectively enrolled and gait analysis performed prior to, 6 months and 1 year following TKA. Reflective markers were placed on the lower extremity and motion data collected using six infrared cameras (Qtrac, Qualysis). Ground reaction forces were recorded with a multicomponent force plate (Kistler). A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compare changes in the peak adduction moment and peak dynamic varus angle over time.Introduction
Methods
