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No evidence the need for manipulation under anesthesia is linked to component alignment
Researchers of a retrospective study analyzing 281 consecutive primary total knee arthroplasties found no evidence that component alignment has any bearing on whether knees require manipulation under anesthesia.
“We found no statistically significant differences in 12 parameters of component alignment between TKAs requiring manipulation and those achieving a good functional outcome,” Paul Harvie, MRCS(Eng), and colleagues wrote in the study. “In the absence of gross malalignment due to ‘surgical error’ factors other than component alignment are more important etiological determinants of poor flexion requiring manipulation after TKA.”
Of the TKAs studied, 21 (7.4%) required manipulation under anesthesia (MUA), which the surgeons performed at mean 8.1-week follow-up. When Harvie and colleagues compared the component alignment of the MUA TKAs to the non-MUA knees, there was no difference in component alignment between the two groups. The researchers used the 12 factors of the Perth CT knee protocol to analyze alignment.
Disclosure: Harvie has no relevant financial disclosures.