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Return to regular physical activities found with use of mobile bearing prosthesis for UKA
Patients younger than 60 years who underwent medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty with a mobile bearing prosthesis returned to activities with most achieving a high level of activity, according to results.
Researchers retrospectively reviewed data for 101 patients aged 60 years or younger who underwent medial mobile bearing unicompartmental knee arthroplasty and had a minimum 2-year follow-up. To assess patients’ levels of physical activity and quality of life, researchers used the Schulthess activity score, Tegner, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and SF-36 scores.
Overall, 93% of patients returned to activity with a significant increase in low-impact activities. Researchers found 94% of patients reported improvement in physical condition following implantation of the prosthesis and 57% reported being completely free of pain during activities. When asked to describe reasons for a limitation or decline in physical activity, 38% of patients listed “as a precaution to preserve the prosthesis,” according to results.
Researchers found significant improvements in UCLA and Tegner scores from preoperative to postoperative measures. According to results, 62% of patients had a UCLA score of 7 or greater with the most common activities listed as cycling (85%), long walks (57%), swimming (52%) and hiking (45%). Satisfaction ranged from 69% of patients being “very pleased,” 26% being “pleased,” 2% being “fairly pleased” and 3% being “disappointed,” researchers noted.
Researchers also found patients had high scores for the SF-36, which were comparable to a matched healthy reference group and higher than a reference population of patients with osteoarthritis. – by Casey Tingle
Disclosures: Walker received research support from Biomet. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.