The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol 67, Issue 8 1175-1182, Copyright © 1985 by Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc
Unicompartmental and bicompartmental arthroplasty of the knee with a finned metal tibial-plateau implant
AB Swanson, GD Swanson, T Powers, MA Khalil, BK Maupin, DE Mayhew and SH Moss
We followed a series of ten patients (ten knees) who had a unicompartmental
and twenty patients (twenty-two knees) who had a bicompartmental
arthroplasty of the knee, in which a finned metal tibial-plateau implant
had been used, for two to fourteen years (average, five years)
postoperatively. According to the modified criteria of MacIntosh and
Hunter, thirty knees (94 per cent) had a good result and two (6 per cent),
a fair result. There were two complications: one intraoperative and one
postoperative fracture of the tibial plateau. One patient with rheumatoid
arthritis required a revision to a total knee arthroplasty at six months
because of rapid progression of disease in the contralateral, untreated
compartment. Our results suggest that with the proper indications this
arthroplasty has a place in reconstructive surgery of the arthritic knee
joint.