Reduced failure rate in knee prosthetic surgery with improved implantation technique.
- Details
From the Swedish Knee Arthroplasty project, started in 1975, types of relatively unmodified knee prostheses were chosen for analysis of time- dependent changes in the failure rate. One thousand nine hundred sixty- nine Marmor unicompartmental and 376 Total Condylar arthroplasties, all cemented, were followed until the end of 1989. The cumulative revision rates calculated with survival statistics showed a continuous improvement with time. The five-year revision rate was reduced from 11% to 5% for the Marmor prosthesis and from 10% to 2% for the Total Condylar prosthesis. This indicates that factors other than improved design are important. Such factors could include improved guide instruments, better surgical and cementing technique, influence of a learning curve, and patient selection.